The cerberus class defense stations form the backbone of the Treadway line fortifications established after the first antarean conflict. built as complete spacefaring fortresses, they contain resources and facillities to outfit half a fleet at once. each of the three wings is entirely self sufficient, housing its own reactor, drives and life support, as aisn forces found to their dismay during a particularly fierce and aggressive offensive coreward of Orion's pocket in the 3rd district.

high over Leylath Secundus, a small but intensely developed industrial world in the Leylath system, USNS Morrigan commanded the system and provided a stern presence of law over the continual movement of heavy freight and merchant vessels. as the war grew ever nearer trade dwindled and the station garrison grew anxious, the commander continually drilling his forces and the pilots and crew becoming worn and nervous. eventually the storm broke.

exiting hyperspace beyond the sun, a small fleet of infiltrators under em silence stole their way towards Leylath secundus, planet-hopping the numerous moons of the system to confuse enemy scans. after almost a week of stealth piloting they had moved into position behind Eris, third moon of Secundus.

timed perfectly, the remaining forces of the AISN taskgroup jumped into the system just out of jump interdiction range of the Morrigan, pinning the station's forces against the planet. they deployed a multitude of decoy buoys between their widely-strung formations, each of which was powered by a high yeild short-burn fusion reactor. using sophisticated hardware, the buoys gave out the Electromagnetic impression of a large warship, and at that range from the station the effect was obviously convincing.

in a vast line stretching almost half the circumference of the planet, the aisn advanced, towing their buoys. As expected, the entire USN garrison scrambled to meet them.

As the brave, outnumbered USN forces tore away from the Morrigan, the AISN infiltrator fleet began moving towards the station. so consumed was the station commander's attention by the apparent armada on his front doorstep, the AISN infiltrators they were able to approach close enough to the station that the first thing the station commander knew about them was the massive shield overload caused by thirty-odd EMP torpedoes punching a hole straight through the Morrigan's shielding.

the ULA marines stationed aboard the Morrigan were no match for the crack assault units of the Irae Dei and two wings of the station quickly fell under control.

the remaining wing, farthest from the point of entry, contained no more than 200 men, partially armed, mostly dock-workers and technical crew. they had sealed the wing under orders from the station commander, now assumed dead since the control spire was quickly overrun and were doing their best to harrass the insurgents with the station's security weaponry.

command fell to Engineer First Class Diarmid McIver, and his eventual solution to the situation would have credited a five-star general.

assesing the battle outside - half the USN garrison's initial broadside having hit nothing but buoys - McIver decided that the station was lost. he initiated the seperation of the last wing of the Morrigan after first disabling all weapon systems, sealing all exits and finally scrambling the mainframes of the remaining wings as a stalling tactic.

by this time, the AISN fleet has finished off the last of the USN defenders and were making their way onwards toward the morrigan.

as McIver's wing barreled away from the Morrigan, he remote-accessed the one system he'd left operational aboard the morrigan's core - the jump drives - and programmed them to jump straight into the middle of their own fleet's flagship - the anubis class battleship Achenar.

the resulting disruption in time and space shifted Leylath Secundus slightly in it's orbit, knocked the closest moon clean out (and from it's current trajectory it may even become a new planet) and decades later was visible when the light reached the nearby outskirts of the sidemore republic further rimwards up the treadway line where it was nicknamed "IverStar".

McIver's chunk of station miraculously survived the cataclysmic blast, having fled behind the aforementioned moon - slingshotting clear using it as a shield.

the immediate millitary outcome of this act was the resecuring of the system by USN reinforcements and the temporary retreat of the AISN - ever abhorrent of heavy casualties - to lick their wounds.

the wing was eventually brought under stable control and piloted back to Leylath Secundus, although many crew died some years afterwards having recieved huge doses of lethal radiation, sadly including McIver himself. a new station was built around the surviving wing and it was rechristened the Morrigan with much ceremony.