[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.They were finished! The men were already in them, waitingPage 104 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlto start, and now there was an enthusiasm and an activity that had not beenbefore; now the men were anxious to get that long journey completed and to bethere, in that other system!Taj Lamor entered his little special car and shot swiftly down to the giantcruisers.He stepped out of his little craft and walked over to the tubeconveyor ready for the trip to the nose of the great vessel.Behind himattendants quickly moved his car to a locked cradle berth beside long rows ofsimilar vehicles.A short while later those who were to remain on the dark planet saw the firstof the monsters of space rise slowly from the ground and leap swiftly forward;then as methodically as though released by automatic machinery, the othersleaped in swift pursuit, rushing across half a world to the tremendous spacelock that would let them out into the void.In a long, swift column theyrushed on.Then one at a time they passed out into the mighty sea of space.Inspace they quickly formed and set out.As though by magic, far to the left of their flight, there suddenly appeared asimilar flight of giant ships, and then to the right, and above them, anotherseemed to leap out of nothingness as the ships of other planets came intosight.Quickly they formed a vast cone about their leader's ship, a protectingscreen, yet a powerful offensive formation.Endlessly, it seemed, they sped on through the darkness.Then as the yellowstar flamed brighter and brighter before them, they slowed their ships tillthe small fliers could safely be released into space.Like a swarm of insects flying about giant birds of space the little shipscircled the mighty masses of the battle cruisers.So huge were they, that inthe combined mass of the fleet there rested sufficient gravitationalattraction to force the little fliers to form orbits about them.And so theysped on through the void, the vast conical fleet with its slowly circling beltof little ships.A fleet whose counterpart had never entered the Solar System.It was well beyond the orbit of Pluto that the first of the Solarian scoutsdetected the approaching invasion fleet.The tension that had gripped Earthand Venus and their guardian ships for so long a time suddenly snapped; andlike a great machine set into sudden motion, or a huge boulder, balanced,given the last push that sends it spinning with destructive violence down aslope, the fleet went into action.It was merely a little scout, a ten-man cruiser, that sent in the message ofattack, and then, upon receiving headquarters' permission, went into action.Some of the tacticians had wanted to try to get the entire fleet into battlerange for a surprise attack in power; but others felt that this could notpossibly succeed.Most important, they de-cided, was the opportunity of learning if the invaders had any new weapons.The Nigrans had no warning, for a ten-man cruiser was invisible to them,though the vast bulk of their own ships stood out plainly, lighted by ablazing sun.No need here to make the sun stand still while the battle wasfinished!There was no change out here in all time! The first intimation of attack thatthe Nigrans had was the sudden splitting and destruction of the leading ship.Then, before they could realize what was happening, thirty-five otherdestructive molecular motion beams were tearing through space to meet them!The little ten-man cruiser and its flight of speedsters was in action!Twenty-one great ships crumpled and burst noiselessly in the void, their gasesbelching out into space in a great shining halo of light as the sun's lightstruck it.Unable to see their tiny enemies, who now were striking as swiftly, asdesperately as possible, knowing that death was practically certain, hopingonly to destroy a more equal number of the giants, they played their beams ofdeath about them, taking care to miss their own ships as much as possible.Another ship silently crumpled, and suddenly one cruiser right in the line ofthe flight was brought to a sudden halt as all its molecules were reversed.Page 105 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe ships behind it, unable to stop so suddenly, piled up on it in chaoticwreckage! A vast halo of shining gas spread out fifty thousand miles about,blinding further the other ships, the radiance about them making it impossibleto see their tiny enemies.Now other of the Solarian ships were coming swiftly to the attack.Suddenly acombination of three of the ten-man cruisers stopped another of the greatships instantaneously.There was another soundless crash, and the giant massof wreckage that heaped suddenly up glowed dully red from the energy ofimpact.But now the little ships of the invaders got into action.They had beendelayed by the desperate attempts of the dreadnaughts to wipe out theirenemies with the death rays, and they could not cover the great distanceswithout some delay.When a battle spreads itself out through a ten-thousand mile cube ofspace through a thousand billion cubic miles of space it is impossible tocover it instantaneously with any machine.Already nearly a hundred and fifty of the giant liners had gone into makingthat colossal mass of junk in space.They must protect the remaining cruisers!And it was that flight of small ships that did protect them.Many of theSolarians went down to death under their rays.The death rays were exceedinglyeffective, but the heat rays were not able to get quite as long a range, andthey were easily detected by the invisibility locaters, which meant certaindestruction, for a molecular motion ray would be there in moments, once theyhad been located.The main fleet of the Solar System was already on its way, and every momentdrew closer to this running battle, forthe great ships of the Nigrans had, although they were entering the systemcautiously, been going at a very high speed, as interplanetary speeds aremeasured.The entire battle had been a running encounter between the twoforces.The Solarian force, invisible because of its small size, was certainly gettingthe better of the encounter thus far, but now that the odds were changing, nowthat the small ships had come into the fray, engaging them at close range,they were not having so easy time of it.It would be many hours before the full strength of theSolarian fleet could be brought to bear on the enemy.They were not able toretire and await their arrival, for they must delay the Nigran fleet.If evenone of those great ships should safely reach the two planets behind them!But within a half hour of the original signal, the Rocket Squad had thrownitself into the battle with a ferVor and abandon that has given that famousdivision a name that will last forever.The small fliers of the Nigrans were beginning to take an appalling toll inthe thinning ranks of the Solarians.The coming of the Rocket Squad waswelcome indeed! They were able to maneuver as swiftly as the enemy; thespeedsters were harder to spot than the Solarian ten-man and thirty-man boats.The Solarian speedsters were even smaller than the comparable Nigran craft,and some of these did a tremendous amount of damage.The heat ray was quiteineffective against the ten-man ships, even when working at full capacity,when produced by the small generators of the Nigran one-man boats.Thecruisers could absorb the heat and turn it into power faster than the enemycould supply it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.They were finished! The men were already in them, waitingPage 104 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlto start, and now there was an enthusiasm and an activity that had not beenbefore; now the men were anxious to get that long journey completed and to bethere, in that other system!Taj Lamor entered his little special car and shot swiftly down to the giantcruisers.He stepped out of his little craft and walked over to the tubeconveyor ready for the trip to the nose of the great vessel.Behind himattendants quickly moved his car to a locked cradle berth beside long rows ofsimilar vehicles.A short while later those who were to remain on the dark planet saw the firstof the monsters of space rise slowly from the ground and leap swiftly forward;then as methodically as though released by automatic machinery, the othersleaped in swift pursuit, rushing across half a world to the tremendous spacelock that would let them out into the void.In a long, swift column theyrushed on.Then one at a time they passed out into the mighty sea of space.Inspace they quickly formed and set out.As though by magic, far to the left of their flight, there suddenly appeared asimilar flight of giant ships, and then to the right, and above them, anotherseemed to leap out of nothingness as the ships of other planets came intosight.Quickly they formed a vast cone about their leader's ship, a protectingscreen, yet a powerful offensive formation.Endlessly, it seemed, they sped on through the darkness.Then as the yellowstar flamed brighter and brighter before them, they slowed their ships tillthe small fliers could safely be released into space.Like a swarm of insects flying about giant birds of space the little shipscircled the mighty masses of the battle cruisers.So huge were they, that inthe combined mass of the fleet there rested sufficient gravitationalattraction to force the little fliers to form orbits about them.And so theysped on through the void, the vast conical fleet with its slowly circling beltof little ships.A fleet whose counterpart had never entered the Solar System.It was well beyond the orbit of Pluto that the first of the Solarian scoutsdetected the approaching invasion fleet.The tension that had gripped Earthand Venus and their guardian ships for so long a time suddenly snapped; andlike a great machine set into sudden motion, or a huge boulder, balanced,given the last push that sends it spinning with destructive violence down aslope, the fleet went into action.It was merely a little scout, a ten-man cruiser, that sent in the message ofattack, and then, upon receiving headquarters' permission, went into action.Some of the tacticians had wanted to try to get the entire fleet into battlerange for a surprise attack in power; but others felt that this could notpossibly succeed.Most important, they de-cided, was the opportunity of learning if the invaders had any new weapons.The Nigrans had no warning, for a ten-man cruiser was invisible to them,though the vast bulk of their own ships stood out plainly, lighted by ablazing sun.No need here to make the sun stand still while the battle wasfinished!There was no change out here in all time! The first intimation of attack thatthe Nigrans had was the sudden splitting and destruction of the leading ship.Then, before they could realize what was happening, thirty-five otherdestructive molecular motion beams were tearing through space to meet them!The little ten-man cruiser and its flight of speedsters was in action!Twenty-one great ships crumpled and burst noiselessly in the void, their gasesbelching out into space in a great shining halo of light as the sun's lightstruck it.Unable to see their tiny enemies, who now were striking as swiftly, asdesperately as possible, knowing that death was practically certain, hopingonly to destroy a more equal number of the giants, they played their beams ofdeath about them, taking care to miss their own ships as much as possible.Another ship silently crumpled, and suddenly one cruiser right in the line ofthe flight was brought to a sudden halt as all its molecules were reversed.Page 105 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe ships behind it, unable to stop so suddenly, piled up on it in chaoticwreckage! A vast halo of shining gas spread out fifty thousand miles about,blinding further the other ships, the radiance about them making it impossibleto see their tiny enemies.Now other of the Solarian ships were coming swiftly to the attack.Suddenly acombination of three of the ten-man cruisers stopped another of the greatships instantaneously.There was another soundless crash, and the giant massof wreckage that heaped suddenly up glowed dully red from the energy ofimpact.But now the little ships of the invaders got into action.They had beendelayed by the desperate attempts of the dreadnaughts to wipe out theirenemies with the death rays, and they could not cover the great distanceswithout some delay.When a battle spreads itself out through a ten-thousand mile cube ofspace through a thousand billion cubic miles of space it is impossible tocover it instantaneously with any machine.Already nearly a hundred and fifty of the giant liners had gone into makingthat colossal mass of junk in space.They must protect the remaining cruisers!And it was that flight of small ships that did protect them.Many of theSolarians went down to death under their rays.The death rays were exceedinglyeffective, but the heat rays were not able to get quite as long a range, andthey were easily detected by the invisibility locaters, which meant certaindestruction, for a molecular motion ray would be there in moments, once theyhad been located.The main fleet of the Solar System was already on its way, and every momentdrew closer to this running battle, forthe great ships of the Nigrans had, although they were entering the systemcautiously, been going at a very high speed, as interplanetary speeds aremeasured.The entire battle had been a running encounter between the twoforces.The Solarian force, invisible because of its small size, was certainly gettingthe better of the encounter thus far, but now that the odds were changing, nowthat the small ships had come into the fray, engaging them at close range,they were not having so easy time of it.It would be many hours before the full strength of theSolarian fleet could be brought to bear on the enemy.They were not able toretire and await their arrival, for they must delay the Nigran fleet.If evenone of those great ships should safely reach the two planets behind them!But within a half hour of the original signal, the Rocket Squad had thrownitself into the battle with a ferVor and abandon that has given that famousdivision a name that will last forever.The small fliers of the Nigrans were beginning to take an appalling toll inthe thinning ranks of the Solarians.The coming of the Rocket Squad waswelcome indeed! They were able to maneuver as swiftly as the enemy; thespeedsters were harder to spot than the Solarian ten-man and thirty-man boats.The Solarian speedsters were even smaller than the comparable Nigran craft,and some of these did a tremendous amount of damage.The heat ray was quiteineffective against the ten-man ships, even when working at full capacity,when produced by the small generators of the Nigran one-man boats.Thecruisers could absorb the heat and turn it into power faster than the enemycould supply it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]