The Destroyers is a science fiction novella by Randall Garrett first published in 1959.

Any war is made up of a horde of personal tragedies--but the greater picture is the tragedy of the death of a way of life. For a way of life--good, bad, or indifferent--exists because it is dearly loved...

Xedii, an agrarian, feudal planet is attacked by a technologically advanced planet, which offers the inhabitants of Xedii "freedom"--a word the farmers of Xedii don't know and can't understand when it's explained to them.

Also available as audiobook, running time: 1 hour, 6 min. Reading by Phil Chenevert.

Randall Garrett (1927-1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about Earth bringing civilization to an alien planet.