The ExoFleet is having success in its campaign on Venus. James Burns leads the Venus resistance in an attack on Vesta, and he is severly wounded by Draconus in the process. Knowing that the ExoFleet will take the city, Draconus orders Thrax to detonate a hydrogen bomb, but after much thought Thrax does not obliterate the city. Phaeton arrives with the Olympus Mons II to prepare a counterattack.