At the drive controls, I took the scoutship directly to the westerly capital of Reen in the kingdom of Ferlach.  On arrival, we were quick to note that whatever our expectations, the facts were more terrible still.  The great castle above the port city had been reduced to a few hellish acres of blasted stones and burning ruins.  The city itself was half-destroyed, mostly deserted, with but here and there a band of citizens attempting to flee with their belongings.  There'd been little looting.  The buildings hit had been gutted.  Indeed, wherever laser beams and heat-positers and touched there was nothing but black swaths of destruction.  Secondary fires raged everywhere.
    The area of the port with its great breakwater and lighthouse was a lake of twisted, burning wreckage.  The masts of sunken coasters stood like twisted antennae above the waters.  Here and there were the bright blue and red bottoms of swamped fishing craft.  The debris of Ferlach's merchant and naval fleets filled all the harbor.
    Above, on the castle's tournament field was the evil bulk of the Alphian invader.  Nothing moved around it.  The terrain had died the death of the castle.  Indeed, it was as if the ship had returned to Alpha.  For the very earth around it, red and black like that of the mother planet, was lifeless - and glowing.