Weaponry on the landers twitched and swivelled, picking out targets. Couples among the adults clutched each other, as if the flesh and bone of arms could shield the one they loved from what was to come. But then, at a nod from Kane, the guns rotated. To cries of anguish, they unleashed white-hot death upon the gaggle of children. Smoke and dust filled the air, lit up by the red blooms of blaster impact. Several adults, screaming, raced into the conflagration, only to be picked off by the hovering machines before they could get near. Others had to be restrained, forcibly held back from running to save their children.
The blaster fire lanced down for twenty or thirty seconds, blinding impact after blinding impact, the destruction far greater than was needed. On and on it went.
When it wa
