Most likely, the heat limit was one that was the limit of what its geological metabolism could withstand. That was why, rather than trying to damage it, they heated up the planet from the outside with more gentle, distributed lasers that would cook the planet's surface and begin heating up the conscious heavenly body from the outside.
And it was working.
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The sheer amount of energy raining down on the planet, even if distributed and diluted across the surface of the planet, was quite intense, causing anomalous geological activity to unfold upon the planet. The sharp, shining lights of the planet began to wobble as the heated atmosphere began to refract light passing through it.
This caused the image of the surface of the planet to look liquid rather than the solid that they had verified it to be.
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