In Jupiter Ascending, Balem talked with an advisor about Earth, and how it would bring him very great profits if harvested... later. Earth, with its population of seven billion. Let's say (though I may be very wrong, my audio was choppy) that the ideal harvest was just rounding up to ten billion. That's my baseline for the Arisax family. That's my baseline for when they usually harvest the planets they own- and therefore, the number of people they kill as a matter of course. And even if the Arisaxes have more control over that process than they have any right to, it's been millions of years since they allied with the Eye. The Realm just won't- tolerate- being- less- deadly. Zane: Two billion- is that how many people I'll be killing today? I hoped it'd be more. But if there are Arisaxes who'll give their secrets to the Eye, if there are Hands and Sections working tirelessly to make the Realm more than them, if the Realm really is that deadly... ...why destroy a planet of just two billion? Why not just depopulate it with Arisax tools, and leave the planet itself intact for some Arisax or other to grow their next crop on? Surely that'd be enough to torture a prince into talking. Was it to demonstrate the Realm's newest weapon? Was it the whim of an angry Hand? Was it because of nanites? The Hand of War is almost completely made of nanites. The weapon could just become part of his body, and be something he implants in a planet when he's on the surface. And maybe that thought would be in the mind of any leader facing him on their world. Maybe the stories are true, and the Hand of War can launch himself off of a planet's surface and survive in a vacuum. Maybe that means he'd be safe if he released the planetkiller against a world he was standing on. Maybe the phrase "my own turf" would be redefined as the absolute last place you'd want him. Maybe just knowing he'd landed would make entire populations terrified, because all it would take is a few wrong words, all it would take is a mistake, all it would take is a whim, and everyone would die. Maybe just knowing he'd landed would make entire populations fall in line. Maybe people would fall over themselves to expose the heretics and traitors amongst them, in the hopes that the Hand would just kill people. Maybe it's all of that. Maybe it's just that. But then, why are there whispers about Apotheosis?
