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Mixtus III was the inhabited third planet in its system.

In 2380, the orbit of Mixtus III's fifth moon began to decay, threatening to impact the surface. This alone would cause catastrophic damage, but the moon would also ignite the atmosphere and kill everyone living there. The planet's inhabitants requested assistance from the United Federation of Planets, who dispatched the USS Vancouver and the USS Cerritos to carry out a controlled demolition of the unstable moon.

Despite the danger posed by the moon, the plan to destroy it was controversial among Mixtus III's inhabitants. Some populations regarded the moon as sacred, some relied on tides produced by its gravity for agriculture, some had lived on the moon itself for generations and would have to relocate, and a few even thought that the threat was made up by the government in an attempt to control them. Despite this, Captain Carol Freeman of the Cerritos was able to negotiate a compromise that satisfied most of the population.

One wealthy representative, however, insisted that the moon could not be destroyed because it blocked pollution that would otherwise devastate his planet, Mixtus II. This delayed the demolition until it was discovered that Mixtus II was almost entirely uninhabited, with the representative and his wife being the only people living there. Freeman immediately ordered the moon imploded which was carried out without incident, although there was some flooding that occurred on the planet due to the delay the Mixtus II representative caused. Ten orbital platforms were manually used together to form a tractor spread to safely control the moon's resultant orbital debris and form a new ring system around Mixtus III. (LD: "Cupid's Errant Arrow")

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