Chapter 26: All Quiet

Etzli smooshed up against the back of Varangr's pilot seat. Malcolm and Ledoyen squeezed in beside her.

As soon as they saw Osmus, they all knew right away the world hadn't just gone quiet. It was dead.

Something cracked open the planet like an egg.

At first, the details were hidden in the shadow of the planet's night side, but then dawn broke across the devastation. An entire hemisphere was blown out, leaving a massive wound that extended from one pole all the way to the equator.

A roiling cloud of debris surrounded Osmus like flies swarming a corpse. Most of the chunks were miles across.

"What the hell did this?" Malcolm breathed.

No one replied.

Etzli felt an overwhelming desire to turn and run. She still wanted to clear her name, to solve the mystery of the Quiet Worlds, and prove once and for all that she was a hero, not a criminal. But, looking upon the gruesome murder scene at a planetary level, she felt way out of her league.