The one wherein the Destiny Enclave is replaced by a large smoking crater...

If I said I was comfortable with everything that went on in the Enclave It'd be a lie. From the Casino that everyone knew about to the hidden genetic research laboratories that pretty much no one knew about, there were goings on behind the fence that never really sat well with me. Not that having it close enough to keep an eye on wasn't an advantage, but there were times the Risk vs Reward balance swung a bit too far towards the Risk side for my taste. Not to mention some of the residents having a separatist attitude that was kinda galling. Like it or not. Admit it or not. Their whole Gorram enclave existed because I convinced the council to let x0x0 alter our deal with Blue Sun.

Destiny existed because Blue Sun let 'em set up on their leased land. Blue Sun had land to sublease, because I convinced the Town Council it was a righteous idea.

Now, I didn't rightly mind an independent spirit. The folk on Hale's were right independent minded most of the time. But when you let refugees move in out of the kindness of your collective heart and some of them go out of their way to not make an effort to join your community? That's just not right. Hell. There were times a few of them seemed to go out of their way to make trouble. Threatening the Alliance with a nuke? Whole colony'd have been humped if we hadn't nipped that in the bud.

Suppose it's no surprise I didn't shed a tear when a low velocity rock center punched their landing pad. We'd gotten enough warning to know it's trajectory and knew it was big enough we couldn't alter its course. Numbers showed it'd hit like a tactical nuke. Five, maybe eight, kiloton yield. Enough energy to wreck everything in the immediate vicinity, but not enough kinetic energy to do more than shower the main colony with a layer of kicked up dust. There was also more than enough warning to let folk evac, so when it hit it didn't end anyone's span. Just made a royal mess of the compound.

Not to say that altering the surface like that didn't give me a twinge. The folk who'd lived in the Enclave had been through a lot. Life hadn't been exactly kind to them. Hell, the Replicants had evac'd Hale's to go to Caliban, only to have that settlement taken out by an Alliance Cruiser. To have their refuge here turned into a crater by a hunk of rock seemed like an ignoble end to Weyland Yutani's experiment in replacing human miners with machines.

But, in the end, they'd find themselves a new home. Any of them wanted to stay on Hale's Moon and join the folks who called our little slice of Heaven home, more power to 'em. We'd welcome them. They wanted to set out for other parts of the 'Verse? We'd wish them the best.

If it ever came up again, I was right sure we'd think hard before offering large scale refuge to folk who don't show an interest in integrating with the people already here. History's had its share of examples and, unfortunately, we hadn't paid quite enough attention to them.

Wouldn't happen again.

Or, more correctly, if it did, it wouldn't be because I'd let it. Only trouble now, was finding resources in town willing to help them clean up their mess.