"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
and breathed in the face of the foe as he passed.
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill.
And their hearts, but once heaved, and forever grew still."
Byron, "The Destruction of Sennecherib"
They came in the dead of night.
The bleary-eyed technicians monitoring the orbital warning satellites, kept awake by pots of caf at an hour entirely unsuited to consciousness, at first thought it was a communications failure when the transmissions abruptly ceased.
Nor were they perturbed when communications satellites fell silent. Perhaps it was a solar flare bringing a sudden burst of electromagnetic radiation.
The civilians wandering the streets of Aldera looked up into the sky in surprise, as meteor showers on Alderaan were uncommon, not knowing the streams of brilliant light were deadly turbolaser bolts.
The first rounds landed among the few military facilities of a planet whose intellectuals preached stridently that a major war could not possibly befall the Republic. Entire city blocks turned to vapor beneath the impacting fire and barrages of concussion missiles.
The transports landed in massive waves, many in portions of the city where the lasers and concussion warheads had cleared landing zones. Even had the invasion fleet been detected sooner, there would have been no chance against the battle fleet and an entire corps of infantry, artillery, and armor.
Earlier, a small advance party had infiltrated the city's military installations, and in the guise of base personnel, had planted small beacons, which now served to furnish the bombarding cruisers with precise targeting data. Most of Alderaan's soldiers died still in their beds, without even time to pick up their weapons.
The invaders rushed to seize their objectives, then began firing on the panic-stricken civilians who tried to flee somewhere, anywhere, but the exits were all blocked.
There was nowhere to hide.
They came in the dead of night.
The bleary-eyed technicians monitoring the orbital warning satellites, kept awake by pots of caf at an hour entirely unsuited to consciousness, at first thought it was a communications failure when the transmissions abruptly ceased.
Nor were they perturbed when communications satellites fell silent. Perhaps it was a solar flare bringing a sudden burst of electromagnetic radiation.
The civilians wandering the streets of Aldera looked up into the sky in surprise, as meteor showers on Alderaan were uncommon, not knowing the streams of brilliant light were deadly turbolaser bolts.
The first rounds landed among the few military facilities of a planet whose intellectuals preached stridently that a major war could not possibly befall the Republic. Entire city blocks turned to vapor beneath the impacting fire and barrages of concussion missiles.
The transports landed in massive waves, many in portions of the city where the lasers and concussion warheads had cleared landing zones. Even had the invasion fleet been detected sooner, there would have been no chance against the battle fleet and an entire corps of infantry, artillery, and armor.
Earlier, a small advance party had infiltrated the city's military installations, and in the guise of base personnel, had planted small beacons, which now served to furnish the bombarding cruisers with precise targeting data. Most of Alderaan's soldiers died still in their beds, without even time to pick up their weapons.
The invaders rushed to seize their objectives, then began firing on the panic-stricken civilians who tried to flee somewhere, anywhere, but the exits were all blocked.
There was nowhere to hide.
