Orbital Bombardment

Orbital Bombardment, also called Orbital Strikes in certain cases, is the act of a starship or a entire fleet of one firing rapidly at a planet's surface, causing heavy damage. This is often used to destroy large targets, cities, armies and more - in some cases, it's used to reduce the planet's influence, life, control, and more. The Galactic Union outlawed it in all situations due to moral objections, while The Dah'kl Empire has granted it's military exclusively full permissions to use it. It's often used as a strategy and threat by the dah'kl empire as such.

Warships and Destroyers are able to wipe a planet surface and render it uninhabited, burning up the atmosphere within just the first second of impact, a notable example being Li-Jing's bombardment.

The Xezilihis Superweapon was inspired by and partially built around the idea of it, designed not only to be capable of doing it with it's defenses built to protect it, but also having the main cannon be able to instantly do it - not just being orbital bombarding capable, but also able to instantly vaporize a entire planet or a whole solar system, and more. It was designed to do it much more efficiently then a fleet.

Counter Measures
Major and Influential worlds, including capitals such as Valinor, often have shields that cover the whole planet or specific areas to stop orbital bombardments from doing damage, hold-out a strike for enough time to get people out of the bombardment range, create another counter-measure, and/or request assistance.

Defensive Fleets consisting usually of millions of starships and fighters are also created to stop bombardments, invasions, and attacks in general. Cannons with ranges far enough to fire out into orbit and disable or even destroy starships are also designed as a defense.

The Xezilihis Superweapon's weaponry was designed by the dah'kl empire as a answer to counter measures and defenses, as they realized that standard fleets will have difficulty getting past most, so it was designed to have mechanisms and firepower that easily bypasses shields and defense fleet capabilities.

Notable planets used on

 * Hely Prime
 * Kr'Fera - Fired at from orbit several times by a dah'kl empire fleet, before being completely vaporized by the xezilihis superweapon's main cannon.
 * Valinor - Attempted several times by the dah'kl empire, failed each time.