"Upward the Republic's folly towered. To the heavens spired endless plates of opalescent ceramsteel, mirroring and refracting the twin suns into a palette of rainbow hues. Flawless as any diamond was its surface, and so perfectly had the ceramsteel been worked that each viewer saw its face completely undistorted by arc or dullness.
"But judgment from the Empyrean came upon invisible wings, and the ceramsteel that had been the Senate's pride collapsed like paper, and for miles could be heard the woeful crash of metal on stone, like the cymbals of a celestial band crashing out a dirge. "
