Perhaps Starky's race is an intergalactic force whose primary purpose is to rid the universe of Lavoids? Maybe once a planet has had a Lavoid for too long, as the CT/CC Planet might have had, they simply destroy it unless there are some valuable resources. Finding none on Crono and Serge's world, they deemed it more appropriate to destroy the Lavoid by destroying the planet than to try to eliminate only the parasite and keep those resources for their parent empire. Or something along those lines.
That seems an awful lot like Tassadar's exploration group in Starcraft, except that the Protoss wouldn't wait for a report.
Basically, if a planet had the Zerg on it (which was termed as an "infested planet"), they were under orders to use their cruiser's main cannon to incinerate the planet's surface, instantly wiping out all life on the planet.
Maybe Starky's race did the same thing with Lavoids, except that they waited to see the extent of damage and such?
