Chapter 8: An Artifact from the Flame Pits
The Pompeiian system was an anomaly among solar systems, possessing but a single, terrestrial–sized planet, sans satellites, and assorted cosmic debris that might generously be termed asteroids. The nearest other star was a parsec away. Space offered no viable challenge to the Pompeiian mind, so there was nothing to distract the people from the business of warfare…
New wars pressed the Pompeiians into ever more frantic searches for superior weapons. Machines of mass destruction demolished the countryside. Fear and hatred, more than any individual government, ruled the people.
Then came missiles and atomic weapons. Far from deterring them, this renewed their enthusiasm for the task of killing. There followed a series of atomic wars on a scale ne
