The attack went on for what seemed like hours, and Orli huddled against the wall of her cave shelter. If this alcove had remained intact for ten thousand years, unscathed even by the superweaponry that had melted the granite cliffs and exterminated the Klikiss, then she was probably safe. But adrenaline made her heart hammer, and she crouched in the deepest corner of the chamber.
Outside, everyone else was being slaughtered . . . including her father. And she could do nothing to help. What had they done to provoke this? And who were the attackers?
Eventually, she heard no more of the faint screams, only the crackle of energy blasts and the boom of distant explosions mixed with the roar of engines. With shaking knees, she crept forward, certain in her heart that every other living human on Corribus must be dead. Smoke filled the canyon, drifting upward in greasy black plumes. The whole settlement had been flattened and burned. Nothing remained whatsoever.
The communications tower and its control shack had been vaporized; she knew her father would have been inside it. Her halfhearted friends must also be dead, all the colonist families, her pet, the acquaintances she had made in their short time here.
She heard the roar of spaceship engines change pitch and decrease to muffled booms. Peeking out through the narrow cave entrance, Orli saw the six EDF vessels land under the smoky sunlight. The massacre was complete.
The Juggernaut was so huge it barely fit between the canyon walls, but the pilot had guided it down without hesitation. When the doorways opened and figures streamed down ramps to the valley floor, she recognized the insectlike forms of giant Klikiss robots. Next, Soldier-model compies built in Hansa factories filed out beside the black-shelled alien machines.
Tears streaked her dusty face. Orli couldn’t cry out, didn’t dare call attention to herself here, so high up on the cliff wall.
The robots separated into teams and combed through the wreckage. Soldier compies used brute strength to knock down walls and crack open sealed storage containers. They found one person who had been hiding and dragged him out screaming. The man broke away and tried to flee, but the robots surrounded him and viciously dispatched him. Orli could see the splash of blood even from her distant vantage. . . .
The robotic invaders remained for hours, being particularly thorough, until they could find nothing left to destroy. As the afternoon light began to fade over Corribus, the machines filed back aboard their stolen EDF vessels. Thrusters lifted the Juggernaut and five Mantas from the ground. Like predators bloated after a large feast, they flew into the sky, lumbering back toward orbit.
Orli had waited long enough. When she realized she was as safe as she was going to be, she crept out of her shelter and began to climb back down. The alum crystals seemed slipperier now, their flat surfaces tilted. Each one seemed treacherous, as if the crystals themselves wanted her to slip and fall.
Before long, her arms and legs were trembling. She knew it was not just anxiety from the dangerous climb, but also the backwash of shock from what she had witnessed. She gritted her teeth and focused her thoughts. One movement at a time, one handhold or foothold, descending a body length, and then another. She had to make it back down.
The valley was in full shadow of dusk by the time she reached the bottom. She stood shaking for a few moments, gasping to catch her breath, then horror and hope swept over her like a flood wave. She ran with clumsy footsteps toward the orange glow of still-burning fires.
As she had feared, nothing remained but rubble and blackened timbers from the poletrees the settlers had brought in from the open plains. The Klikiss transportal had been demolished. Blackened human bodies—mercifully unrecognizable—lay strewn about on the ground or buried in the wreckage of collapsed buildings.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” Her voice cracked, but she did not give up. “Is anyone else alive?”
Only a resounding silence echoed back at her as night fell. It was no use. She was all alone on Corribus, the only survivor.