But as he fought, he suddenly came to see that the word victory had become twisted to mean annihilation.

Defeat meant annihilation, retreat through a land swarming with bloodmad enemies.

To fight on, he knew, would have meant annihilation.

If they had it would have meant annihilation of the whole German advance.

Victory means annihilation of the enemy's power of resistance.

Captain Future, nerving himself for the inevitable crash that meant annihilation, felt a sudden deceleration of their flashing fall.

Moreover, he sensed that the mere presence of that being in any of the lands would mean immediate annihilation.

He was not always victorious, but then defeat did not mean annihilation, and need not break his spirit.

"Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation."

Only the stakes were higher- a potential nuclear war with Russia- but also, as I said, war was understood to mean total annihilation.