Page 119 - SurprisingTruthFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Chapter 13:
The Dark Night
The floor of the museum archive had been a
sanctuary of irony; now it was just a target.
The initial thump of the kinetic strike had become a
sustained, deafening roar, shaking the city down to its
bedrock. The priceless glass cases of the diplomacy
exhibit shattered, sending a cascade of useless treaties
and brittle documents onto the floor. Henry scrambled
away from the blast zone near the wall, the sound
tearing at his eardrums.
He knew what that sound meant. It wasn't the noise
of bombs or cruise missiles. It was the sound of orbital
platforms shedding hardened tungsten rods,
accelerating to hypersonic speed, the cleanest, fastest
way to eliminate a planetary threat. The Iron Union’s
strike on the Commonwealth’s Project Helios was a
military success, executed with cold, truthful logic.
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