Yarnada was ablaze by now.
Glowing in the gloom of the night.
There was no one to stem the fires, and so they had simply abandoned the metropolis to its fate.
The city wide evacuation was nearing completion anyway.
And the LSN were only a few hundred kilometers out by now. Looking no bigger than model airplanes.
Smoking model planes. With small pockmarks where that one stubborn defender had landed its hits.
The Cannon.
Which still stood defiantly.
Preparing its eighteenth and final shot.
It had downed two of the smaller ships for good. Two Ripperder warvessels, of 2kms long sat off in the far distant gloom of the night covered savanna.
But as the vast barrel charged, so did the distant Ferolder's main beam.
A single orange light stretched from the mammoth's ecstatic weapon. A pinprick in the deep gloom of the night.
That pinprick landed on The Cannon.
And the Cannon knew this too well. The Protectorate officers had watched the distant mammoth line it self up with their Cannon. They had decided to loose their last bolt of defiance, and run.
Dozens of people rushed from it's base as it's automatic firing sequence engaged for the last time. It's inset blast doors fully open as cannon operations personnel ran - with order - for their lives from the great weapon of residual protection.
That pinprick of a laser sight, held it's place directly upon the Cannon's center of mass.
Slowly, gently, terrifyingly, the beam began to expand.
First to the size of a tennis ball, then to the size of a soccer ball, and on an on until it was larger than a sports stadium.
As it expanded, so too did the intensity of the beam.
Heating the metal of The Cannon so that its colour changed from a burning red, to near-ultimate white, and finally to super-hot blue.
It's personnel were far from it now. The protectorate supervisor turned, and gave one final look towards the weapon that had served it's purpose for the first, and final time.
The metal, carbon and alloy of the huge construct began to erupt in fits and spats as the laser beam expanded and intensified until it nearly encompassed the whole construct.
Melting metal, and burning concrete.
As the once defiant weapon, gave in.
And crumpled to the ground in a molten heap.
As it crumbled, spraying scrap and debris, it sent a shockwave through the earth. The ground rippled as the energy of the collapsing cannon struck the ground.
That shockwave stretched across the city.
Even to the the Yarnada spaceport, Prima Spacia. Where four Large-Scale 'Deluxe' transport vessels were seated.
One such, was the intersolar transport ship, Isesa Lee, sat on the northern most side, with it's regal emblem of the Porters Planet Guild painted onto it's side.
It had just began to close both of it's two huge entrance airlocks, as the last of the Yarnadian civilians made it in, stumbling over legs and baggage. Clawing at the walls and floors, scurrying into the vessel of safety. Fits and yelps. The screams of terror that had permeated the air, had grown tired by now.
The metal alloy doors screeched shut, slamming with a satisfying click, as the Magnetic and Non-mag Locks clamped into place. Then, the relatively large airlock began to seal it's second door, which slid closed as the last Yarnadian scrambled in. Wheezing with the exertion it took to climb from the The Grand Lower, all the way to the top of the world in 30 minutes.
YOU ARE READING
World In Turmoil
Science FictionAmongst the empires of the galaxy. Between the factions and the territories. On a rustic world left to itself. A young man had heros once... They were a force sworn to protect. They were a navy of saviours. In a time of need. ...
