The cold words of Inquisitor Thorne-Crow had barely faded when the sky above the outer reefs turned a violent, bruised violet.
High above the clouds, the orbital Star-Array spire pulsed with renewed fury, channeling raw celestial fire into Moros’s battle line.
Down on the water, the ocean was boiling.
Great plumes of white steam hissed from the surface as thousands of square yards of seawater reached a rolling froth.
By the dawn of Day Eighty-Six, Warden-Elder Moros had sustained the bombardment for four continuous days without a single pause.
The relentless pounding began to take its heavy toll on the allied crescent line.
Along the outer western flank, the armor plates on four allied Star-Iron warships groaned under the constant thermal stress.
Heavy star-iron rivets popped like pistol shots, skittering across the iron decks and splashing into the bubbling sea.
