That beam, brimming with lethal destructive power, was like divine punishment from beyond the heavens. It tore through the planet's atmosphere, then slashed diagonally from 30 degrees north, straight across the equator, all the way to 50 degrees south. It swept across more than three thousand kilometers, leaving the bearfolk's planet with a scar that seemed to split the land in two.
Where the scar passed, cities were blown apart and trees torn out by the roots. The ocean boiled into searing steam that formed hundred-degree gale winds, sweeping over the dams along the continental coast.
In the age of cold weapons, this would have been unquestionable divine punishment. Considering that more than ten cities had been leveled along the beam's path, the death toll would certainly have climbed into the millions.
Of course, because all the citizens had entered underground shelters in advance, the Empire's attack had not caused too many casualties.
One shelter, however, had the misfortune of lying directly in the beam's path. As the ray, which could destroy matter outright, melted the soil, it melted the shelter's steel outer walls as well. Scalding lava poured into the shelter like a flood out of control.
The terrifying heat quickly killed sixteen thousand ordinary citizens and a thousand members of the security force inside. Only five hundred of them were human; the rest were bearfolk, men and women, young and old alike.
When an ion cannon or positron cannon pierced the atmosphere and continuously bombarded a planet, vaporizing its atmosphere and oceans and turning its soil to crystal, that was what we commonly called "glassifying" it.
Of course, the Empire had only bombarded the planet once this time, but that was enough to terrify the people of Biener into surrender. The hardy Bien bearfolk could not withstand the