ORION
"If anyone receives this message, we need your help." I live on the planet Orion located in the Star Nova solar system which is in the Orion Cluster nearly 90,000,000 light years across the Sapphire galaxy from your planet which we designate as Marbella in the solar system b297. Our planet is part of a solar system with 12 planets in orbit around a giant sun.
Our Star Nova solar system in many ways is similar to your own. The third, fourth and fifth planets in our solar system have been inhabited by intelligent beings.
We live on the third planet.
Many cycles ago the fourth planet, which was inhabited by a population much superior to ours, even by our standards, had a catastrophic event which destroyed the planet. Life existed on this planet for many thousands of our cycles. When the planet was destroyed, some of the remaining debris became four of our outer moons and after visiting these moons we found much evidence that a great civilization had once inhabited this planet.
We have been able to determine with exact preciseness that there is potential for life on two of the planets in your solar system. It exists on the third and fourth planets from your sun and we are attempting to communicate our desperate need for assistance.
Our planet has achieved technological advancements which allow us the capabilities of space travel. Until recently this space exploration technology was only used for near planet flights which included exploratory missions to each of our seven moons. After many years of exploring our moons we decided to look further into our solar system. Many unmanned missions were planned and designed to peer deeper into our solar system.
The leaders of our planet voted to visit the planet nearest to us with our newest and most extensively outfitted research vessels to verify if indeed there was life on the planet Vision, and other planets in the solar system.
With the information gathered via the unmanned missions over the past several years and with verifiable evidence of life on Vision, the mission to Vision became crucial and dangerous. We were going to a world that we knew nothing about and to a world that apparently knew nothing about us. Our leaders thought this seemed to be the perfect time to expand the space program and search this nearby planet first to confirm evidence of life, and more importantly to us, to search for the much needed and extremely rare mineral, Mellium.
The Orion Space Exploration Administration (OSEA) was developed and funded with the intent to search the seven moons of Orion to find Mellium. Starting with the visitation to the seven moons of Orion we searched for many years with very little success to find the needed element. Soon this led to multiple visits to the nearby planet of Vision which was the fifth planet of twelve in the Orion solar system. Orion was the third planet in relationship to the distance from our sun. There had once been a planet called Mystic on an orbital plane located between Orion and Vision but many cycles ago there had been a catastrophic event on the planet which had destroyed it. Over the many cycles since Mystic had broken apart and drifted through space, four large remnants of that planet had drifted into the gravitational pull of Orion and had achieved orbital stability. Once it was verified beyond reasonable doubt that these large pieces of space debris were remnants of Mystic, the expansion of our space program grew exponentially. These four moons were the main reason for the rapid expansion of the space program. It was hoped that the visits to these moons would produce positive results in the continuing search for Mellium. The remaining mass of Mystic was now no more than space dust floating in what was once its planetary orbital path. One of the reasons OSEA had put so much effort into their Moon Advisory Research System (MARS) was to explore each of the seven moons, especially the outer four in hopes of finding a more plentiful supply of Mellium. It was needed in larger quantities than could be found and extracted from the deposits on Orion. Larger quantities of Mellium were needed for the development of more powerful exponential amplification converts which were a key component in the faster than light speed generators for the teleportation machines. The use of Mellium was limited because of its rarity on our planet, therefore the development of the teleport machines had become a slow process. Scientist working on the project would wait for two to three years before they were given enough to apply to new technology and in some cases the new technology worked and in some the results were less than desired. But the work trudged along slowly.
The Orion's had expanded the scope of OSEA to put satellites into space to assist with the development of the faster than light speed technology being incorporated into the teleportation systems tracking and location programming. With each new advancement of the teleportation machines, the range, speed and accuracy improved.
The teleportation machines were expensive to build and maintain due to the now almost non-existent Mellium, so plans were made to explore the solar system. Our teleportation machines had grown form what had previously been short range line of sight devices to the now global abilities. Now with the launching of several tracking and location satellites around the world we could send cargo anywhere at any time. Items could be transported to any location from any location. This array of satellites swarming the planet had led to intensive research to develop and enhance the machines capabilities which everyone hoped would soon include the transportation of living tissues. The scientist working on these enhancements were having difficulties in perfecting this process due to the lack of Mellium. So the development of technology for this process was slow also and to this date did not exist, which continued to limit us to the transport of inanimate objects only. Transportation of living tissue was proving to be an exhaustive research with no positive results. We had hoped that visiting the outer four moons would provide the possibility of finding more Mellium. We needed more Mellium and the technology for finding more plentiful supplies on our planet were diminishing quickly.
Message In A Bottle
Hello to anyone on the planet we designate Alpha One (Earth) in the solar system b297. I am President Threely of the planet Orion in the Star Nova solar system which is part of the Orion constellation in the Sapphire (Milky Way) galaxy. We are approximately ninety million light years from your planet and we are seeking your assistance. We have searched most of this galaxy and found numerous solar systems which contain multiple planets each, but your planet most closely matches ours. We are sending a transmission with a brief history of our civilization and culture in hopes that we can communicate our needs. We are seeking asylum on your planet to escape an invading force from a planet in our own solar system. This invading force has caused internal core damage to our planet and it will soon destroy itself. We hope that you receive this message and will in turn accept our request as we have nowhere else to turn. If you deny our request then we will cease to exist as a society and a species. We have developed the technology to allow us to travel to your planet in a matter of weeks. We have previously sent all the information necessary to build the receiving platform which will allow us to arrive at your planet. Please read the information carefully and thoroughly as we want you to be sure of your decision. We hope you and your kind have the ability to feel compassion and can understand our plight.
We are a peaceful race and as such we extended our hand to assist another planet in our solar system and in return for our charity they attacked our planet and have now nearly destroyed it. The Orion Space Exploration Administration (OSEA) was created to assist in the exploration of our solar system in hopes of finding a badly needed element for our planetary transportation system. After many years of searching the moons circling our planet we found nothing. The planetary governments decided to move beyond the outer moon of our planet and on to the planet Vision. Once we had made contact with the inhabitants of Vision, we found this badly needed element to be in plentiful supply and it was considered worthless to the inhabitants living there.
Many years earlier our studies indicated there was the strong possibility of life on this planet. With it's relatively close proximity to our planet we decided to develop a plan to study Vision form orbit and later visit the in person once it was confirmed that there was indeed life on the planet. Vision was the fifth planet of twelve in the Orion solar system, Orion was the third planet in relationship to the distance from our sun. There once had been a planet, Mystic, located between Orion and Vision but many, many cycles ago there had been some catastrophic event on the planet which had destroyed it. Over the many cycles since that event, four massive bodies of land from the remnants of Mystic had drifted through space and had gravitated into an orbital pattern around Orion to become moons. The remaining debris was floating through space in what was once Mystic’s original solar orbital path.
The fact that Orion has seven moons is one of the reasons the Ruling Governments were working closely with researchers and scientists at OSEA and had put so much effort into their Moon Ascent and Recovery System (MARS). The MARS program was designed to work in conjunction with OSEA to visit all the moons of Orion. The OSEA space program had originally been developed to put satellites into orbit, which would provide better tracking control for the teleportation machine’s sending and receiving platforms. This would allow the owners to extend teleportation over greater distances. Now by combining the two programs they hoped to reach the moons and begin setting up receiving platforms for two way teleportation. The previous use of land based tracking stations was limited to line of sight targeting which limited the teleportation machines short range transports, and everyone wanted to ability to move product over greater distances, so the first satellites had been developed and launched with great success.
The teleportation machines were expensive to build and maintain due to the rare and almost non-existent key element, Mellium. Soon after OSEA had proven that they could launch satellites into space and maintain their orbital patterns the Ruling Governments sought to have OSEA develop ships that could travel to the moons. It was hoped if they could develop space ships with the capabilities to reach the outer moons they would find the much needed Mellium. The ships were built and many visits were made to each moon in search for Mellium but only small quantities were ever found on any of the moons.
Since the teleportation machines were short range devices and to this date could only be used to transport inanimate objects, great effort and expense had been put into the development of technology which allowed for human transport. Transportation of living tissue had proven to be an exhaustive research with no positive results. The Orion’s had hoped visiting the outer four moons would yield the possibility of finding more Mellium. With more Mellium the Orion’s could build more powerful teleportation machines which would increase the distances of each transport. The long range plan was to find the needed Mellium and build teleportation machines powerful enough to transport between Orion and the first moon and then on to the seventh moon. With the resulting missions yielding very little Mellium the program was slowed and the harvested Mellium was used to power the machines on the planet.
Orion has a unique orbital pattern which allows for the following, one day was equal to 36 hours, one month was equal to 22 days, one year was equal to 396 days, which equaled 18 months, and one cycle was equal to 100 years.
Space travel beyond the seventh moon started on the 3rd day of the 6th month in the 12th year of the 56th cycle. Orion was attempting its first manned, long range, deep space flight. The Orion Space Exploration Agency (OSEA) had conducted many space flights over the past 1/2 cycle but all of these had been what were called near planet explorations, or nothing outside the boundary of the seventh moon. Most of these early launches and space flights included the launching of many low orbit satellites to aid with communication and other worldly necessities but the primary portion of these missions was to put satellites in place to enhance the planetary teleportation machines effectiveness and accuracy. This flight was the first manned trip beyond the seventh moon and was considered to be an historic event.
Orion has seven moons that orbit the planet. On most days you could only see three of the moons at one time from most planetary positions, but every third month you could see two additional moons, not the same two every third month as the four outer moons would rotate in appearances. Once every two years all seven would be visible for most of a one month period. The trips to the farthest moon were normally scheduled as a thirty round trip plan, sixteen days dedicated to the round trip travel and a fourteen days for the exploration of the moon. Each moon had such an plan in place allowing sufficient time for travel and discovery. The challenge now would be to develop the technology to travel further and faster.
Over the past 50 years there have been significant gains in space travel technology. With this information in hand the Ruling Governments decided now was the time to begin to explore beyond the last moon and on to the planet Vision. There had been many unmanned noncontact missions to visit other planets in their solar system, always with a flyby of Vision as part of the plan. With millions of photographs and hundreds of thousands of man hours devoted to the visual studies of these planets during the flybys, studies indicated only one planet, Vision, a few years away had shown significant signs of being inhabited. No one knew what kind of beings would live there or what type of civilization had developed due to the toxic nature of the atmosphere. This was the reason for these newly planned missions. Visit the planet and observe from space what was there. Vision had been studied for many cycles and it had been speculated by scientist as another planet in their solar system with the possibility of life. The Orion’s had studied this planet through many a different telescope over the past fourteen cycles and recently through the OSEA program, and now was on the verge of being visited by a manned spacecraft from Orion. There were many who opposed this venture fearing the inhabitants would not accept the fact that life existed outside their own planet. Like all citizens of Orion, life was thought to be limited to their planet, it had been taught that way for thousands of cycles. Now, both planets were going to find out differently.
This planet was called Vision in the Orion history of discovery. It was discovered by the Orion scientist Cletuuvis in the twelfth month of the fifth cycle. He named it Vision because he said it was a vision of beauty in the night sky. Over the many years since Cletuuvis made his discovery, scientist had spent much time speculating about the possibility of life on other planets. Since no one had sufficient knowledge to substantiate that fact, speculation had grown and spread that this possibility existed, there could indeed be life on other planets, even planets in their own solar system.
Once it was discovered that there was life on Vision, the next thing to do was to observe and learn as much as possible about the beings that lived there and their civilization. During the many years of observation involving hundreds of missions to Vision, the information gathered was beginning to make some sense. The use of high powered photographic technology and sensitive listening devices produced clear pictures and excellent sounds from the planet. It was through this information gathering process how OSEA learned that the beings who lived there were very much different from Orions. The language was completely different and took nearly three years to translate. The language had been studied intensely and by comparison of sound bites to photos, the two were linked to develop words and phrases. During the three year translation process the Orions learned the basics of the language of Vision. One of the first things translated was that the inhabitants had named the planet Calto. (To this point in time there had been no contact with the inhabitants of Calto, so the Orion’s still referred to the planet as Vision). There were many significant discoveries during this period of time but the most striking was the planet was suffering from severe neglect. There was no technology in place to clean the air of the toxic waste. It appeared as though the inhabitants had merely adjusted to the conditions and no real concern was given to the problem.
The planet appeared to be governed by Emperors and Warlords. It also appeared that the ruling government was part of the same family linage and had been that way for many generations. There was impressive manufacturing, social living communities and a very advanced and aggressive military presence that appeared to dominate most of the planet. The planet was nearly void of empty land masses. The entire surface seemed to be covered with life and cities. That was most likely the cause of the toxic atmosphere. With this great a population covering the planet feeding the population ws of great importance. The food that was available to the general population was all produced in the factories in the form of supplement packets. Very little natural vegetation was grown and the small amount that was available mostly went to the military and government leaders. There were smaller amounts of natural vegetation that were secretly kept to use as bribes to buy protection from factions that existed at a lower level of power outside the reign of the Warlords. This was a ruthless system of government in which the lower level of power was tolerated by the Warlords until you were caught, then you were killed, because you presented a threat to the validity and control of the Warlords.
Information concerning Vision had been gathered and compiled from the many missions over the years and was given to the leaders of the Orion Ruling Governments. The proposal had been put before the people of Orion and it was decided by majority vote that it would be worth the risk to make contact with Calto.
Vision seemed to be in grave need of assistance to clean the pollution from the air and the people of the planet in general would benefit greatly from the exchange of technology. In the years that OSEA had been observing the planet there was no evidence that the Caltonians had achieved space travel capabilities or the abilities to launch satellites. Their technology was limited to land based observance and broadcasting. It appeared they were completely unaware that they were being observed.
First Contact
The first contact with Calto was made by Commander Benjamin Brody of the spaceship Columbia. It was a simple coded message which contained two dots and two dashes and repeated itself for ten seconds and paused for ten seconds. The message was sent via a directed and concentrated beamed transmission to the palace of the leading scientist of Calto and was hoped that he would be curious enough to retransmit the same code. Once a response was received the code was changed to three dots and dashes and again the same was received from Calto. This type of communication continued for several days and was reported to the Presidents of the Ruling Governments that a primitive form of communication had been established and that the scientist from Calto had responded in like manor. The primitive message had been successfully communicated and first contact was established. Once the scientist understood what was happening with the dots and dashes he used the broadcasting capabilities of the signal generator to speak to Commander Brody. Commander Brody was a little shocked that the scientist had taken such a drastic step in communication. Voice contact was not intended to begin this early in such a new relationship. It took some time and much convincing to get the Caltonian scientist to believe that Commander Brody was indeed in a flying machine in the sky above the Caltonian planet. Commander Brody explained to the scientist how to use his telescope to view his ship in space. Once the scientist on Calto saw the ship in space he realized that he was communicating with a spaceship from another planet. This communication went on for a few days before it was decide that both planets needed a formal introduction.
The Presidents of the Ruling Governments drafted a letter to be broadcast to the leaders of Calto using this same method of communication. The scientist was asked to bring the Emperor of Calto to hear the message. The letter was read by President Melbourne who represented the Presidents of the Ruling Governments. The letter was then translated and broadcast in the Caltonian language by Commander Brody. It was asked that a response be broadcast in the same manner by the Emperor of Calto. The Emperor declined to respond in person but allowed the scientist to respond in his place. There would be time later for the Caltonians to learn the Orion language. For now it would be best to communicate using the Caltonian language since it was a language now familiar to two worlds. The letter from the Orions provided an introduction of the leaders of the Ruling Government and explained in small details who the Orions were as a people. It gave examples of the different cultures and different types of people that lived in harmony on the planet. The letter also gave coordinates to locate the Orion planet and how to find them in the night sky using the Caltonian version of a telescope. It went on to explain that once the Caltonians were ready to make phsyical contact the terms and condition for the meeting and the appropriate place would be established. The letter went on to explain that the Orion people meant no harm to the Caltonian people and hoped that there would be no offense taken for the many years of observation on their planet. It was stated that this amount of time was needed to get to know the people of Calto and to understand their culture, their language and policies, for the possible meeting of beings from another world. The same amount of time would be alloted to the Caltonian if it needed. OSEA would provide any information needed by the Caltonians to assist with their concerns. President Melbourne stated that there was considerable conversation on the Caltonian broadcasts that speculated towards other planets existing with the ability sustain life. With all things considered, the Orion people thought it was the appropriate time to make contact.
Once the policies and conditions for person to person contact had been set, the Emperor's palace was deemed to be the best place for this type of historic contact to take place. Commander Brody was again the Commander of the spaceship since he was the first to make contact. The co ordinates for the the landing spot were transmitted and the spaceship landed without any problems. President Melbourne came to the first meeting and stated that there should be no gasps or looks of alarm when meeting the Caltonians for the first time. Things will be somewhat different than what we are used to, he had stated, but we need to make a good first impression. Upon arrival at the palace the first shocking thing to be realized was just how big the Caltonian people were. By comparison they were nearly three feet taller and were the most muscular beings the Orions had ever seen. Not that they had seen any others, but these beings were huge.The average height for an Orion was five feet so this was impressive and a little scary.
First introduction were made and a large feast was served. After the meal, the Emperor and President Melbourne spoke of the upcoming exchange of technology, and whether there would be limits to this exchange of information. It was decided that it would be a completely open exchange, no limitation.
The Caltonians were willing to negotiate the trading of anything and everything. Nothing was forbidden and the Orions were as accommodating as they could be given the fact they were millions of miles from home. To the Caltonians all technology was up for trade and at the top of their list was technology for space travel. They began almost immediately to negotiate for the technology to build their own space ships. They too wanted to explore the vast unknown depths of their solar system and beyond. They were willing to give the rights to their planet for this technology but the negotiators soon found common ground on which to stand and the search for Mellium began.
The trade negotiations were going well and the Orions delivered their space exploration database which contained their limited knowledge of the universe.
The Caltonians were more aware of their impending doom form global neglect than the Orions had anticipated. They quickly made it known that they needed to find other planets to harvest resources to sustain their way of life. Near the beginning of the trade negotiations there didn’t appear much to be gained in favor of the Orions from all the cultural and other technological exchanges of information. The Caltonians had abused every inch of their planet and had resorted to artificially producing everything to sustain life. Still the negotiations continued in hopes that something of value could be found to satisfy the technology exchange. As the two planets continued to exchange information and grow what appeared to be a bond of trust, it became apparent the Caltonians did indeed have something that the Orions needed. It was something that the Caltonians considered junk rocks and was used to make costume jewelry and other trinkets. It was a plentiful natural resource which the Caltonians had no use and so took it for granted, but it was the one thing the Orions needed badly. Mellium. It was the thing that was available in extremely limited quantities on Orion, but here on Calto it was just lying on the ground to be picked up and used by anyone. It was called Zeallium on Calto and Mellium on Orion. It was the product that allowed the Orion’s to enhance the power output of their teleportation machines. The Caltonians were not made aware of the extreme importance of Mellium but negotiated a trade proposition of Zeallium for space exploration technology and satellite launch capabilities.
The Caltonians did not appear to have a desire to improve their quality of life and therefore did not request any technology to assist with cleaning the air or new technology to feed their people more efficiently. They were excited about the concept of space travel and the opportunities that lay ahead of them in the vast darkness of space. So the sharing of resources started and continued for many years until the Caltonians came to Orion looking for the natural resources that could not be found anywhere else in the solar system.
Very soon after the arrival of the Caltonians to Orion the fighting began and was soon happening all over the world for ownership of Orion. The Caltonians and Orions had been fighting for over 50 years and neither side was winning or losing decisively. That was before. For nearly all of the previous 50 years the Caltonians had seemed content to use the fighting to distract us to allow them to steal what they wanted. Over the last several months the tactics of the Caltonians had changed. Early in the war the devastation to the planet was happening so slowly that even the Orion scientists had not realized the total extent of the internal damages to their planet. Now, in what seemed like an overnight event, changes were happening so quickly to the landscape and atmosphere that everyone could see the end was near. The life of their once beautiful planet was fading quickly. With what seemed like only days left before the end, everyone was struggling to put the final touches on the massive project G.E.T. This was the project the Ruling Governments were hoping would be the salvation of the Orion people. If they could get the project completed quickly this was going to allow the Orion people to leave their home world and go to the new world, Alpha One, on the other side of the Sapphire galaxy to start life again, in peace.
Faster Than Light
The newly designed teleport machines being built under the direction G.E.T. program scientists and engineers contained an exponential amplifier for the light speed converter used by the standard teleport machines already in use by the Orions in their everyday life. These machines were used to transport goods and supplies and whatever raw materials were needed anywhere in the world. Transports could be done from any land based transport machine to another land based machine or to air and underwater based machines. These were low powered short range type of transport machine and could only transport inanimate objects. Outside the few failures during its early development, it had never been used for the transport of humans. This had to change if they were going to save the inhabitants Orions. The Ruling Governments had decided to build a facility in the Noovlu Islands to work on correcting the problems of human transport. It took a lot of hard work by many of the greatest scientist from all over the world, but the solution had been found, and now they had to build a power source powerful enough to transport over the greatest distance ever attempted, ninety million light years, to the other side of the Sapphire galaxy. They originally started by testing the machines ability to transport to the nearest moon of Orion and then to the next and the next until they had reached the seventh moon. A trip that had taken eight days, by spacecraft only a few short years ago, could now be done in a matter of seconds. The next goal for the scientist was to transport to Calto. If they could do this it would give them a strategic advantage in the war. Continuing with the expansion of the G.E.T. program, over the next few months they developed this technology. By refining the Mellium to an even more pure form they increased its power output tenfold and built a site powerful enough to make the transport to Calto and beyond. The limit of this new capability had not been tested so no one knew for sure just how far this new teleport device could reach. The time to travel to the seventh moon had been tested and was nearly instantaneous.
Recently the Caltonians discovered this technology existed they were determined to have it for themselves. Until this point the Caltonians had not taken an interest in the teleportation machines since they had limited capabilities. Now that the machines were more powerful, the Caltonians wanted them for their own uses. They increased the number of troops on Orion by one thousand percent in hopes of stealing the G.E.T. technology for themselves.
The Noovlu Islands proved to be the perfect hiding place for the project. The Caltonians had not bothered to invade that part of the planet because they did not want to waste valuable time hopping from island to island, killing only a few Orions at a time. The Caltonians were about mass destruction and fear, little islands could be taken care of later; they were no threat.
Nearly two cycles earlier the Orion scientists had discovered a solar system on the far side of the Milky Way/Sapphire galaxy, nearly 90 million light years away. Of all the solar systems that had been discovered this one looked as though it had the prerequisites to sustain life as the Orions had come to know and love. This solar system, b297, had at least 8 planets orbiting a giant sun, and possibly as many as ten. Plans were put in motion to develop the technology to complete a trip to this potentially new home planet.
The battle with the Caltonians had been raging for nearly half a cycle when the Orions started the G.E.T. program nearly one and half cycles ago. The scientists had been studying this new solar system for nearly the same 2 cycles. The discovery of this solar system had happened just before the Caltonians had decided to attack and invade Orion. At first there was just genuine excitement at the possibility of even more life in the same galaxy. Then as the war progressed and the planet began to show signs of uncorrectable devastation this new solar system was looked upon as a new home far from the savagery of the Caltonians. The Orion scientists were in the process of discovering other wondrous new worlds and galaxies that had never before been seen before the attack. Scientist and government officials from all over the world were excited at all the possibilities that were before them in the vastness of all that space. They had just begun to explore these new wonders when the Caltonians attacked.
Devon Yates
Devon Yates spent time living on the planet Calto many years after contact was made. He was the leader of the military intelligence exchange program. There were numerous other things which needed to be addressed during these exchanges of information and the cultural development process. Cultural ideas, humanitarian needs, educational structure and basic political and theological ideas were topics that gathered much attention during the early exchange of ideals of the newly formed interplanetary friendship. Space travel, both deep space and interplanetary travel was discussed and guidelines were put into place to keep peace between the two worlds.
Devon also used much of his personal time while on Calto to allow his body to adjust to the increased gravity. The gravitational pull of Calto is almost twice that of Orion. This presented mobility difficulties for anyone visiting from Orion who wished to become involved in sustained activities for extended periods of time. Devon made plans to live on Calto for six month periods of time during his leadership of the exchange committee. His body adapted quickly to the increased gravity and the toxic atmosphere. This gave him a distinct advantage when he returned to Orion especially when it came to training exercises, fighting and most anything requiring physical exertion. He recognized that his time on Calto had increased his abilities and wanted the troops under his command to have the same physical advantages. Devon was a military soldier and any advantage he could get to enhance his abilities could only be viewed as positive reinforcement. He made the necessary arrangements to get his troops assigned to Calto for all missions going forward. By taking his soldiers to Calto to serve as part of the exchange program on all of the subsequent trips they too had become acclimated the difficult conditions.
Devon knew that there was always the possibility that the Caltonians would not be content to stay within the boundaries set forth by the exchange committee's leaders once they had the technology to begin their own space program. The boundaries were set with the intent to protect Orion from uninvited visits from the Caltonians. The guidelines allowed for the Caltonians to explore all space outside the border of the seventh moon of Orion. The Caltonians did not like the idea of being blocked from visiting Orion since the Orion's had been visiting their world for many years from space. They were even more unhappy that they could not visit Orion to see the sites and landscapes discussed during the many months of cultural exchange. Since the Orion's had touched their soil, they thought the leaders of Orion should be more open minded and allow Caltonian visitations as a gesture of good faith. This became a sore point of discussion in many of the subsequent negotiations. Shortly after the Caltonians had received enough information to launch their first few space missions they decided to stop person to person relations with Orion and would only consent to radio transmitted conversations.
Devon and his troops lived on Calto off and on for the better part of five years prior to the stoppage of person to person negotiations. Once the negotiations broke down Devon returned to Orion and was put in charge of planetary defense. He and his men were involved with the training of thousands of Orion soldiers in preparations for the possibility of visits from the Caltonian militia. Due to the time spent training on Calto he and his men became best suited to fight the invasion forces that Devon was convince would soon be coming.
It only took a few years before the first ships from Calto were spotted flying within the boundary of the seventh moon and in the months that followed the Caltonian's became even more aggressive and were soon flying patterns that brought them on a path that came between the first moon and the Orion planet. The Orion's did not retaliate with aggressiveness to this breach of the no fly treaty, they simply asked the Caltonian's to adhere to the agreements of the treaty to which the Caltonians basically said to stop them if they could. Devon was in constant contact with the Presidents of the Ruling Governments and once this message was relayed to them President Melbourne issued a statement to the Caltonian Emperor which basically stated that the Caltonian spacecraft should obey the seventh moon boundary. If they should choose to violate the boundary then this action would be considered an act of aggression and could lead to the spacecraft being fired upon or worse, destroyed. The Emperor of Calto replied that since the Orion representatives had not agreed to allow Caltonians to visit the planet of Orion they felt deceived and would not abide by the seventh moon boundary until the Caltonians were allowed to visit Orion. This type of dialog continued for the next several months as the Caltonian ships kept coming and the warnings were continuously being sent. Then suddenly the ships stopped coming and the Orion's presumed that the Caltonians had grown tired of the time and investment it took to make all the continuous trips to Orion with nothing to show for their efforts. Sadly nothing could have been further from the truth.
It was a year and a half before the next encounter with Caltonian's was detected. The ship was detected entering the outer boundary of the seventh moon and it was different than any ship ever seen. This ship did not conform to any of the plans or information given to the Caltonians. This ship was at least five times larger and was traveling at an incredible speed and was heading straight for the planet. The OSEA long range sensors detected the Caltonian ship while it was outside the seventh moon. These sensors had been developed and installed on the seventh moon to detect and event such as this. At the urging of Commander Yates President Melbourne had agreed to have the sensors installed on the seventh moon as an early warning devise. It was determined that the ship would reach Orion in four days and judging by its size it was determined that it was more than an exploration ship. It was determined that this was a ship carrying an invasion force to land on Orion and do harm to the citizens of Orion.
With all their training on Calto, Yates and his troops were nearly as strong and agile as the Caltonians which better prepared them to fight the Caltonians in the decreased gravity of Orion. The Caltonians invaded with a force so large they could have easily taken the planet if not for the resistance Commander Yates and his men provided. Their time on Calto and the rigorous training prepared them well for this fight and the Caltonians were turned back on their first effort. But it would not be their last. They had been to the surface of Orion and seen technology beyond anything discussed in the exchange of information programs and this angered them. Now more than ever they wanted to come back and take this technology. They let it be known in no uncertain terms, they would be back. And back they did come, more ships, more soldiers, and more weapons. The next fight was for the Wolfe Mountain Range.