Her Celestial Farm on the Scrapyard Planet (by Kay Lucas) novel Chapter 439

Chapter 439 A Little Threat

She let that land for a moment

“And then had that live round reflected into themselves

The color on Deon’s face cycled between ashen grey and a sick, mottled violet.

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“Unauthorized use of heavy ordnance against inspection personnel?” Elizabeth repeated his accusation back to him with quiet precision, then shook her head. “Colonel Barron, you’ve selected the wrong subject for that sentence.”

She held his gaze, and her composure was the most unsettling thing in the room.

“The party that deployed unauthorized heavy ordnance against inspection personnel was yours. Not mine.”

“As for that light,” she added, her mouth curving at the corner with something that barely qualified as a smile, “that would be our farm’s proprietary defense system. Strictly classified as a trade secret.”

Deon stood there, momentarily rendered speechless.

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A defense system.

What kind of defense system in the known universe could reflect a Military Command main cannon’s energy discharge back onto

itself?

But Elizabeth didn’t afford him the space to press further.

She turned and made her way toward the door.

At the threshold, she stopped, her back still to the room.

“Colonel Barron, whatever comes next is yours to manage. Surveillance footage, formal statements, we’ll cooperate fully. Ship inspections, evidence collection, all of it, consider us available at any time.”

She paused, and something in the quality of the silence shifted.

“But I’ll leave you with one thought.

“I don’t start trouble with those who leave me in peace,” she said softly. “But those who do come for me will answer for it.”

The smile was faint, almost gentle, and it sent a chill straight up Deon’s spine.

Outside the window, the fireball had finished its descent and met the earth, and now thick columns of black smoke rolled upward from the impact site.

Across the farm, workers had set down their tools and turned toward the distant plume.

Some called out in alarm. Some ran toward it. Others simply stood where they were, staring up at the sky with expressions no one had words for.

Dwayne hauled himself up off the floor, his legs still trembling beneath him.

He looked at Elizabeth’s retreating figure, then at Deon’s bleached, hollow face, and felt a profound, bone–deep certainty settle

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17 am

Chapter 439 A Little Threat

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Cover Mim. His decision not to align himself with the Fifth Military today way, without question, the most sound judgment he had

ever exerciser in his caree

On the monitoring screen, Desmond’s ship slowly adjusted its heading and began its descent toward the ground.

The other four ships followed in formation, easing downward in a quiet procession.

Their hulls were flawless. Not a single mark on any of them, In the full blaze of afternoon sunlight, they caught the light and gleamed with an almost indifferent brilliance.

Elizabeth gave Deon one last glance, then turned and walked through the door.

At the threshold, she paused once more, her back still to him.

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“Colonel Barron, I’ll have the farm staff keep their distance while you handle things. Take all the time you need.”

The door swung open, and she stepped through it.

Sunlight poured into the room and fell across Deon’s face, which had gone the color of old bone.

He stood there without moving for a very long time, until a trembling voice came through the comm from one of his second unit’s

members.

“Sir… Rupert and the others… all of them… they’re all gone…”

Deon closed his eyes.

What materialized behind them was Gregory’s face, and that particular smile of his that always meant something no one else was yet permitted to know.

“If there happen to be casualties during the inspection…”

There were casualties now.

Only they were not the ones Gregory had intended.

These were his soldiers.

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The inspection concluded well before its scheduled end.

No one had it in them to continue.

The smoldering wreckage of what had been a ship still breathed black smoke into the sky, its debris field scattered across a stretch of wasteland roughly two miles east of the port.

The Fifth Military dispatched a small rescue vessel to the site. It returned carrying six bodies that were no longer recognizable as individuals, and a scattering of fragments that had once been part of a hull.

Deon stood at the perimeter of the cordoned–off zone and watched each stretcher, draped in white cloth, carried one by one into the medical bay.

Rupert

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Chapter 439 A Little threat

He’d served at Beon’s side for five years.

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From second lieutenant to captain, from a raw, fumbling recruit to a deputy who could hold a line without being told how.

At last year’s championship, Rupert had been the tip of his spear, throwing hireself into two simulated killing blows that had been meant for Deon, then grinning afterward with that irreverent ease of his and saying, “Sir, my life’s yours to spend.”

Now he was beneath one of those white sheets.

Deon’s hand had closed into a fist so tight his nails had broken the skin of his palm, but he felt none of it.

“Sir.” A voice behind him, thick with suppressed grief. “Chief Smith is on the line.”

Deon drew a slow breath and stepped into the temporary command tent.

Gregory’s face filled the projection screen, and his expression was exactly what it always was: composed, unbothered, utterly unreadable.

“I’m already briefed on the situation,” Gregory said, his voice carrying no more weight than if he were reviewing a routine report. “Six dead. One ship destroyed.”

Deon stared at that face, and something cold and clarifying moved through him. He’d never actually understood this man. Not once, in all the years he’d served under him.

“Sir,” Deon said, his voice roughened past its usual precision. “Rupert’s last words were that you arranged it.”

Gregory was quiet for exactly one second.

“He was telling the truth.”

The air left Deon’s lungs.

“Why?”

cause that farm cannot be allowed to remain.” Gregory’s tone was flat, as if he were discussing the weather. “The Hewitts. First ry. Every wealthy and well–connected figure who stepped forward to publicly champion that farm’s cause. Do you honestly e any of them did it for a handful of strawberries?”

on said nothing.

That farm has become a symbol for the Hewitts,” Gregory continued. “Over a single navigational lane application, political and commercial elites, senior personnel from the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Military Commands, all of them personally placed calls to intervene. Don’t you find that excessive?”

“So you had Rupert…” Deon’s voice fractured on the last word.