O’Bannon’s wife birthed their first child on the day the asteroid received its name: 7Plutus. In hindsight, it was fate. Two more children, a wedding and a house in the D.C. suburbs followed. The children grew; 7Plutus sailed along its orbit, carrying a cargo of metal more precious than everything on Earth. A new gold rush erupted.
The first corporation to land on the surface was Vectorien.
They staked their claim according to the nascent international laws of space mining, developed an HQ and began exploitation.
Mining proceeded smoothly—until discovery of the Zorg: amorphous entities of unknown liquid, which absorbed and dissolved man and metal alike. The press dubbed them snoglobules.
The first Zorg assault destroyed most of Vectorien’s machinery and crew, but the company adapted. They developed weapons to vapourize the Zorg, and established an asteroid-wide defense force to protect their investment.
It worked until November 9, 2097, the day the Zorg first appeared on Earth, materializing in downtown Barcelona and causing such panic and unprecedented material destruction that the U.N. declared a global emergency.
More attacks followed: Lagos, Chicago, Nanjing, Warsaw, Chennai.
Earth lived on edge.
Vectorien sold its weapon technology to governments that could afford it but refused to accept any responsibility for the attacks. Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there was no direct link between Vectorien’s mining on 7Plutus and the Zorg raids, meaning the company owed no compensation.
Vectorien’s profits grew as earthside casualties increased.
On July 17, 2098, the Zorg hit the D.C. suburbs.
O’Bannon watched in helpless terror as a snoglobule absorbed his wife and children, and they, caught as in gelatin, disintegrated into pink mist.
He vowed revenge.
On September 1, 2098, the U.N. voted into existence the 1st International Space Brigade, tasked with neutralizing the Zorg threat.
In January 2099, a Vectorien mining crew discovered a complex cave-system on 7Plutus, terminating in a massive liquid-filled cavity: a breeding chamber home to a Zorg Queen.
On February 3, 2099, the U.N. initiated a secret mission whose objective was infiltration and eradication of the breeding chamber.
It was a suicide mission.
Clandestine recruitment began the same month. One of those contacted was O’Bannon, and he agreed. In total, nine were selected. They called themselves Kamikaze Corps.
When they finally disembarked on 7Plutus, their orders were simple: rendezvous at Vectorien HQ, attach to a mining crew and converge on the breeding chamber, where they were to use any means necessary to neutralize the Zorg without compromising Vectorien’s mining operation.
They had ample bombs.
But at HQ, the mission changed dramatically. Led by O’Bannon, four Corps members mutinied. A firefight ensued, after which only O’Bannon and two allies remained alive.
Before Vectorien’s security forces could react, and before Earth even realized, they had blasted into Vectorien’s subterranean warehouses, barricaded themselves inside, and swiftly wired their own reworked bombs to Vectorien’s stash of mining explosives.
On September 22, 2099, while clutching a memento of his family, O’Bannon eradicated the threat—