The *Pendragon* speedily entered the atmosphere of the first Planet. They had successfully arrived undetected and were now flying through the clouds of the first Planet. They eventually reached the drop-off point and the three sabeuteurs matierialised in one of the many cavernous control rooms. Tyran had been careful to scan it before hand to make sure there were no Kelvans there. There were many similar control rooms throughout the planet, so not all of them needed to be manned at once.
Tyran walked straight over to the control pannel. Kira and Tierro, who had never been on a Kelvan planet, stood looking around at the cavernous room. Ciara crossed her arms and began to shiver.
"It's c-c-cold in here," she stammered.
"You'll get used to it," shouted Tyran from the other end of the room, his voice echoing. "Come here."
Kira and Tierro walked over and joined him. Tyran was speedily scrolling through options on the Kelvan computer.
"How do you know what your doing?" asked Kira.
"Do you think I'd have taken us here if I didn't know what I was doing?"
"No... I suppose not."
"There, their communications system is down, now they can't warn their friends. Activating the moon weapon now."
"What?!?" shouted Kira. "Tyran, as soon as we use it, they'll be on to us. The other Planets will target their moon weapons on us!"
"Exactly! And that will be one less Planet for us to worry about. And by then, we will be gone. Right, the moons are charging up now. I have disabled their shields so we can beam out, and have locked them out of the moon control system. I think we're set to go."
"Kira to Holmes. Three to beam up."
As the *Pendragon* left the atmosphere, the sequence was already beginning. Holmes swung the ship around so that they could watch the show. Outside, far above the surface of the Kelvan Planet's north pole, a brilliant aurora burst into view and intensified by the second. Over the south polar regions a similar effect had initiated. Within half a minute, the energy had become so intense that the crew had to shield their eyes. Over the next fifteen minutes, the entire Kelvan Planet and its moon system slowly rotated until the Kelvan Planet's north pole was pointed directly at the neighbouring Planet.
By this time, the three other Planets had begun charging their weapons and aimed themselves at the first Planet. By this time the auroras at either pole were joined to each other by slender streamers that arced and danced gracefully along the planet's magnetic field lines. Soon the entire Planet was encased by gossamer threads of energy.
The moons had closed their orbits to less than one-quarter of what they had been before. They were brushing the upper limits of the aurora's radiation field and were stirring it up.
Bursts of energy flashed between the surface of the planet and the moons. The aurora's brilliance intensified and began extending in the direction of its target.
The critical power threshold was reached, and a beam ten-thousand times brighter than what any of them were expecting instantaneously bridged the gulf between the Kelvan Conquest Planet and it's neighbour. It was almost as wide as the Conquest Planet itself, and when it washed across the second Kelvan Planet, the helpless target Planet shuddered.
Electrons, protons and positrons, propelled almost to the speed of light, slammed into it. The atmosphere of the planet was ripped away in the first few seconds. The next few seconds saw the oceans boil away into space and all surface vegetation burn to ashes. Cataclysmic earthquakes shook the planet, utterly demolishing any artificial structures that might by some chance still be standing. The planet's crust was crumpled and ground to dust; mountains were leveled, basins were filled in with the debris. In the end, the surface was rendered almost smooth, with almost no up-down variation.
It was over in less than a minute. The Kelvan particle beam fell beneath its critical minimum energy level and winked out. The moons slowly began their spiral journey back out to their normal orbits.
At this point, the two remaining Planets, both launched their beams at the attacking Planet. In a similar way to the second Planet, this one was soon a smooth ball of rock in space. The remaining two Planets powered down and their moons also began to spiral back out.
"I told you this would work," smiled Tyran. "Now, we only need to do this once more and then we can return to the Ronin and persuade the Admiral and Captain to let us try this on the real fleet.
"We can probably expect higher resistance on the second planet." said Kira. "They'll have hightened their security since we landed on the last one."
"That's what you're for Kira," replied Tyran. "Danni, take us in."