It was hard to decide whether to destroy a galaxy or spare it. Emperor Antero Vipunen considered this choice. The Tuonela galaxy was one of the seven crown jewels of the Superluminal Empire and contained over 90,000 colonized worlds with trillions of sapient inhabitants. More than half of them were now hosts to the Hiisi Parasites.
It was a matter of time before the Hiisi Matriarch got her claws on the means to traverse the gaps between galaxies. This would spell the end of the Superluminal Empire.
Antero Vipunen’s mind began to swim. Could he become responsible for the death of countless billions of his subjects? Was there no way to save them?
In the innermost sanctum of the Capital planet in the Throne galaxy, the Emperor stood before his Everweapon, capable of negating the strong interaction of quantum particles in a sector of space. He had no actual knowledge of the inner workings of the weapon, but it was the means by which the seven galaxies were subjugated generations ago.
In front of him, seven orbs hung in the air. Placing his hand on one of them meant activating the Everweapon against that particular galaxy. The monarch felt sick. It was one thing to crush a single planet, or eradicate a species resistant to just rule, but to snuff out the lives of a whole galaxy?
It had to be done. The Hiisi must be stopped.
His eyes blurry, Emperor Vipunen reached out with a trembling hand and pressed the sphere in front.
As the strong nuclear force of the Throne galaxy began to disentangle, the parasite hidden deep inside the Emperor’s brain died peacefully, knowing it had served its Matriarch well.