Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [134]
“To make up for the one you destroyed?” Zan’nh said bitterly.
Without waiting for confirmation, the weapons officer launched a volley of high-energy beams. His aim was precise, the weapons accurate—and deadly. Zan’nh was hit by another blinding storm of needle-sharp pains, the stings of distant deaths. Seven Alturas cutters exploded in the sky; the remaining defenders, in panic, began to scatter.
Like a stampede of angry pack animals, Thor’h’s warliners descended through the remnants of the Alturas defenders toward the planet’s primary city. In the streets below, swarms of Ildirans moved about in stunned disbelief. All faces were turned toward the sky.
“I could level the whole city, you know,” Thor’h said. “That would teach them a lesson for resisting.”
Zan’nh could barely contain his rage. “A very enlightened solution. Is that what the Lightsource tells you to do—massacre unarmed and innocent Ildiran citizens?”
Thor’h shrugged. “Perhaps you are right, brother. Once we convert them, they will become loyal followers of Imperator Rusa’h. Right now they are victims of their own doubts.” He nodded to himself again. “Yes, I believe it is best to vaporize only the palace and not the rest of the metropolis.”
The big warliners dropped over the skyline and converged above the Alturas palace. The desperate local Designate signaled again. “What have you done? Seven cutters obliterated! You are insane. You are murderers. You—”
“And you are completely uninteresting.” Thor’h gestured to the weapons officer.
Bombarded with a flurry of kinetic-energy projectiles, the Alturas palace erupted in multiple detonations. Smoke, flames, and debris flew into the sky like the fireworks displays the Hyrillka Designate had at one time enjoyed so well.
Zan’nh reeled from the cold-blooded and unnecessary action he had just witnessed. The jolt through the thism pierced him like a crystal spear in his side. Along with many other people in the palace, his brother and uncle had just been murdered. Thor’h did not seem to feel it.
If he ever got the chance, despite all of his training, his honor, and his cultural bias, the Adar knew he would kill Thor’h—with his bare hands if necessary.
Now that the Alturas palace was nothing more than a smoking crater filled with rubble, and the Designates dead, the warliners made swift work of another world. Shiing was forcibly distributed among the populace in preparation for the triumphant arrival of Imperator Rusa’h—who was on his way.
Now Thor’h taunted his brother. “You see how simple this is, Zan’nh? Yet another world has joined our cause. Some people may resist down there, some may refuse to take the shiing, but as the rest of the population comes over to our way, they will soon be disconnected, barely able to function. They will change their minds and beg to be part of the web again. This rebellion is like a rapidly spreading flame, a bright blaze that will burn away all corruption. Are you certain you do not wish to join us of your own free will?”
Zan’nh looked away. “Absolutely certain.”
Thor’h gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment.
A few escapees fled to nearby systems, spreading word of Rusa’h’s swift and bloody victory on Alturas. Some even made a desperate flight all the way to Ildira, where their urgent news only added to what the Mage-Imperator had already learned from the Dobro Designate.
When Thor’h took his warliners to Shonor—the next Ildiran colony in the Horizon Cluster—the forewarned and intimidated local Designate and his people simply surrendered without a fight.
Chapter 64—ANTON COLICOS
Every step brought them closer to Maratha’s dawn. When they finally crested a rise of rocky hills, turning toward the glorious pastel suffusing the sky, the abrupt daybreak was like a jolt of energy to the Ildiran survivors.
Anton stumbled ahead, hungry and weary beyond words. Their food and water supplies had run out a while