Max made his way to Cleansing Light, preparing to join in on the attack after the results of the Firestorm Bombing were compiled.
The Cutters had already made their way out of the hangars, the sleek curves of their outer hulls shining like platinum in the faintly blue light of the closest star.
With their organic curves and polished exterior, it was a hard thing to believe that such beautiful vessels were on a mission to destroy an entire planet, but one after another, the five Cutters adjusted their course and began dropping drones into the upper atmosphere, where they hovered in position, waiting for the signal to begin their mission.
In total, two hundred autonomous drones were dropped, each hovering at its preprogrammed location with a Firestorm Bomb attached.
Fewer than twenty would be enough to burn the planet's surface bare, but if all two hundred went off in order, the surface should be turned entirely molten, eliminating the need for the Orbital strike to finish the job.
Destroying the planet's ecosystem was one thing, but if they had to destroy the planet itself, it would upset the balance in this solar system, and that wouldn't go unnoticed for very long, with the Klem controlling every system around them.
[All bombs are in position.] The Cutter Pilots informed him as the five vessels fell into formation around the Titan Class Mecha.
[Initiate.] Max ordered.
A wave of fire lit up the far side of the planet, rushing around the surface in a wave of superheated death as the exquisitely timed explosions pulled the front of the planetary Firestorm onward, creating a ten thousand degree hurricane on a planetary scale, hot enough to melt even diamonds and Tungsten in minutes.
For over an hour, the inferno raged as the atmosphere of the planet was burned away, leaving a barren and uninhabitable ball of molten rock behind.
Max watched in awe as the fires slowly faded, then in horror as a circle of solid rock began to form where the planet's magnetary North Pole was. The thermal sensors showed that it was dropping by hundreds of degrees a minute, solidifying the surface of the planet in a slowly growing ring.
[What the feth is that?] Admiral Drake asked, watching the planet cool at an unnatural rate.
[Sensors detect strong energy under the surface, but it is fading fast. I think that whatever triggered it is burning through their reserves to cool the surface enough to escape.] Nico reported.
That was even worse than their planned worst-case scenario. Nobody had anticipated that something which could survive under the crust of the planet would exist or that it would have the capability to cool the molten ball, which should burn for decades before even the smallest part would become solid again.
[Change of plans. Prepare the formation to attack the center of that cold spot. We must not allow anything to escape the planet's destruction.] Max ordered.
The shift only took a single minute before the five Cutters, and Cleansing Light were back in position again. The targeting systems watched as the surface rapidly dropped in temperature while they readied their Orbital Lances for the attack.
[Synchronize your targeting systems to Cleansing Light. I will target and trigger the attack.] Max ordered, relieving some of the tension in the Pilots' hearts.
Nobody wanted to be the guy whose system lagged and fired a split second late, ruining the combined effect of the six Orbital Lances.
Max didn't wait after the calculations were finished, giving himself no more time for doubts and second thoughts. He triggered the attack, and six mighty beams of energy converged on the solidified portion of the planet.
But it did not vaporize as he had expected. Instead, the glow of an alien shield lit up the center of the strike, and the entire solidified plate was forced down into the mantle of the planet, sending a destructive shockwave through the molten ball.
The first portion to fail was the south pole, with the direct transfer of energy blowing a large portion of the surface out of the planet's gravitational field, followed by rippling backlash which met the shockwave from the strike near the equator, causing the planet to implode and blast outward in a flat wave of material that was quickly cooling as the small globules of liquid rock and metal met the vacuum of space.
It reminded Max of the rings that some worlds collected around them, only this time, there was no planet at the center, only a small glowing object, still emitting faint shield energy.
[To be able to take that sort of a strike, I do not think that is a human or Klem invention. Nico, send a drone to recover that shielded object for us if you can.] Max ordered over a private channel, keeping the main communication lines silent as the Regiment recovered from their shock.
[On it, boss. I will analyze it as soon as I can. Anything that can take the full force of a combined Cleansing has to be a good thing. Assuming we can determine what it is.]
A solitary drone fighter, one of the specialized ones that Nico had created, which was larger than the others, made its way to the object, which appeared to have been serving as the planet's core. The distance distorted Max's sense of size, but as the drone approached, Max realized that it was nearly a thousand kilometers in diameter.
[Oh, it is a good thing. Can I keep it?] Nico asked, moments after the drone had arrived and before she had even relayed basic information about it.
Max's sensors couldn't detect anything about it at all, the shielding was blocking all attempts to scan it, and from this distance, it only appeared to be a smooth metal ball from his optical sensors.
[Don't keep me hanging, what did you find?] Max demanded as Nico's drone circled the object, the erratic flight pattern showing the extent of Nico's curiosity.
[I think it is a Dyson Sphere. It surrounds an energy source, and it absorbs everything that we send to it. That's why we can't scan it. It just absorbs the energy of the scanners.
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