Everything Save The Wind

"Outpost of Empire."

Maybe a new kind of warfare is possible. It depends on priorities, presuppositions etc. The outbackers manage to destroy a city without killing its population which makes sense for them because what they are against is urbanization, not the existence of other people. What they do is to capture Domkirk, order its evacuation, then nuke it with is own missiles. They have none of their own, of course. 

Uriason continues to provide comic relief. He babbles, gobbles, orates and gibbers. Ridenour must escape from him "...or commit violence." (p. 75)

But the most interesting detail that I have found is that, between its evacuation and its destruction:

"...Domkirk stood empty of everything save the wind." (p. 73)

Regular readers will know that the wind often punctuates Poul Anderson's prose and comments on his characters' dialogues and actions. It is always present. And now it remains present even when everyone else has gone! We would not have noticed or commented on this if we had not commented on the wind so often before.