[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
selected weapons would provoke the defenders to counter measures. He had no illusions about the
counter measures, Earth had some nasty weapons, wasteful but nasty and quite capable of knocking out
small unshielded ships like these. While they did so, however, they would betray their positions, defensive
aircraft could be tracked to their bases and the general pattern of defence revealed.
Temperature approaching normal for the area."
Alkine glanced at the screen and mentally inflicted suffering upon himself. There was a visually
impenetrable blanket of fog, below it, the snow trenches were full and the water had risen above them. It
was raining in torrents.
He gave quick orders to the robotic work force. Channels must be cut to the perimeter and area drained.
Beyond the snow cloud and the umbrella limits of the deflector screen, the three assault ships nosed
slowly into sunlight.
The vessels were specially designed for the atmosphere and consisted of a single black wing without
body. They were capable of reaching three miles a second in the atmosphere as well as withstanding the
near-solar heat of such speeds. Their orders were, however, to fly low at moderate speed unless
attacked by enemy vessels.
Vessel One was piloted by a veteran alien named Sadru and Sadru, skirting the limits of the cloud bank
and incidentally the last fringes of the Sahara, ran into trouble before he had time to co-ordinate his
bearings.
Close to the horizon a funnel of blackness lifted suddenly from the desert and spun towards him. He was
unworried, sandstorms and whirlwinds were not unusual phenomena. He curved away skilfully and was
compelled to pull up abruptly, another had risen in front of him.
The gravity compensators whined protestingly and then suddenly he was in darkness.
Sadru had no need to reason out the obvious. He was under attack, a unique and highly dangerous form
of attack, a controlled tornado. He had no option but to spin with it but he was completely cut off from
base.
He applied power and the ship juddered protestingly, no use trying to force his way out to the
extremities. He slid the other way, the vortex should be calm. It was, save that periodically outsize rocks
spun out far above and dropped like missiles. Get in again? No, there must be rocks in there.
There was an impact and the vessel tipped alarmingly, he fought desperately for control and was struck
again. He veered, the extremities of the vessel touched the swirling wall of sand. Another heavy impact
and he lost control. This time he went into the funnel again, the wind caught the vessel, twisted it round,
turned it over. Rocks pounded at it, ground it between them, minute perforations began to occur, fine
sand entered, filming everything, working its way into the micro-engineering of the control consoles.
A compensator cut suddenly and the vessel turned sideways out of control.
Six minutes later the tornado died almost as quickly as it had been born. Fragments rained on the ground,
rocks, tree trunks, pebbles, boulders and a crumpled metal thing which had once been Ship One.
Ship Two cleared base without incident but shortly after departure began to have communication trouble.
The vessel's speed was reduced and the technical engineer released a micro-tele device to examine the
exterior communication plate. Its visual report showed a thin film of something coating the entire vessel;
magnified pictures showed that they were insects.
The pilot took a quick zoom well into the ultra-sonic and burned them off. When he descended again
through light cloud, there was another cloud for which he was unprepared. When he cleared it, what had
been a film, was now a coating. The second cloud had been a locust swarm. The insects striking the still
hot surface of the vessel, congealed and stuck firmly.
The crew studied the unpleasantly sticky surfaces and made alien rueful gestures. They supposed they'd
have to go up again.
The vessel's response to the order was slow and a number of warning instruments came into operation.
The tele-device was released again and the pictures it beamed back were disturbing. Coating on the
under-side was treble that of the upper surfaces, this one would have to be a strato-jump.
The pilot, now inwardly uneasy, gave the vessel full boost. On his home world, insects were virtually
non-existent and the presence of so many disturbed him. Again, why so many flying things? Pre-invasion
adaptation and recognition courses had familiarized him with the existence of terran birds but not their
behaviour. Why, when they slowed for examination, had they swooped and circled in hundreds? He
knew they were non-intelligent and his alert instruments informed him that not one among the swooping
hundreds contained an ingenious mechanism or warhead.
He realized suddenly that although the drive-unit was delivering full boost, performance was only one half
of output.
Rate of ascent was decreasing and the warning instruments were verging on the hysterical.
It was then that the armaments technician drew his attention to the visible upper surfaces of the vessel and
he was startled at the change in colour. It was only when he looked closely that he realized the colour
was due to growth. The upper surfaces had a thin coating of vegetation!
He forced himself to reason. Not enough to cut performance in half in which case, what was on the lower
surfaces?
The tele-device was sent out to take a look.
The ratio of output to performance had now deteriorated to one quarter and upward ascent was verging
on the pedestrian.
The tele-device finally beamed back a picture. It had taken some little time for, in human terms, it had to
descend seven metres below the ship to get a clear view. The lower surfaces of the vessel were trailing
that length of weed and vine.
The pilot, because he was intelligent, did not reject the picture but he suspected some distortion in the
lens.
It was only when his attention was again drawn to the upper surfaces that he accepted it completely. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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selected weapons would provoke the defenders to counter measures. He had no illusions about the
counter measures, Earth had some nasty weapons, wasteful but nasty and quite capable of knocking out
small unshielded ships like these. While they did so, however, they would betray their positions, defensive
aircraft could be tracked to their bases and the general pattern of defence revealed.
Temperature approaching normal for the area."
Alkine glanced at the screen and mentally inflicted suffering upon himself. There was a visually
impenetrable blanket of fog, below it, the snow trenches were full and the water had risen above them. It
was raining in torrents.
He gave quick orders to the robotic work force. Channels must be cut to the perimeter and area drained.
Beyond the snow cloud and the umbrella limits of the deflector screen, the three assault ships nosed
slowly into sunlight.
The vessels were specially designed for the atmosphere and consisted of a single black wing without
body. They were capable of reaching three miles a second in the atmosphere as well as withstanding the
near-solar heat of such speeds. Their orders were, however, to fly low at moderate speed unless
attacked by enemy vessels.
Vessel One was piloted by a veteran alien named Sadru and Sadru, skirting the limits of the cloud bank
and incidentally the last fringes of the Sahara, ran into trouble before he had time to co-ordinate his
bearings.
Close to the horizon a funnel of blackness lifted suddenly from the desert and spun towards him. He was
unworried, sandstorms and whirlwinds were not unusual phenomena. He curved away skilfully and was
compelled to pull up abruptly, another had risen in front of him.
The gravity compensators whined protestingly and then suddenly he was in darkness.
Sadru had no need to reason out the obvious. He was under attack, a unique and highly dangerous form
of attack, a controlled tornado. He had no option but to spin with it but he was completely cut off from
base.
He applied power and the ship juddered protestingly, no use trying to force his way out to the
extremities. He slid the other way, the vortex should be calm. It was, save that periodically outsize rocks
spun out far above and dropped like missiles. Get in again? No, there must be rocks in there.
There was an impact and the vessel tipped alarmingly, he fought desperately for control and was struck
again. He veered, the extremities of the vessel touched the swirling wall of sand. Another heavy impact
and he lost control. This time he went into the funnel again, the wind caught the vessel, twisted it round,
turned it over. Rocks pounded at it, ground it between them, minute perforations began to occur, fine
sand entered, filming everything, working its way into the micro-engineering of the control consoles.
A compensator cut suddenly and the vessel turned sideways out of control.
Six minutes later the tornado died almost as quickly as it had been born. Fragments rained on the ground,
rocks, tree trunks, pebbles, boulders and a crumpled metal thing which had once been Ship One.
Ship Two cleared base without incident but shortly after departure began to have communication trouble.
The vessel's speed was reduced and the technical engineer released a micro-tele device to examine the
exterior communication plate. Its visual report showed a thin film of something coating the entire vessel;
magnified pictures showed that they were insects.
The pilot took a quick zoom well into the ultra-sonic and burned them off. When he descended again
through light cloud, there was another cloud for which he was unprepared. When he cleared it, what had
been a film, was now a coating. The second cloud had been a locust swarm. The insects striking the still
hot surface of the vessel, congealed and stuck firmly.
The crew studied the unpleasantly sticky surfaces and made alien rueful gestures. They supposed they'd
have to go up again.
The vessel's response to the order was slow and a number of warning instruments came into operation.
The tele-device was released again and the pictures it beamed back were disturbing. Coating on the
under-side was treble that of the upper surfaces, this one would have to be a strato-jump.
The pilot, now inwardly uneasy, gave the vessel full boost. On his home world, insects were virtually
non-existent and the presence of so many disturbed him. Again, why so many flying things? Pre-invasion
adaptation and recognition courses had familiarized him with the existence of terran birds but not their
behaviour. Why, when they slowed for examination, had they swooped and circled in hundreds? He
knew they were non-intelligent and his alert instruments informed him that not one among the swooping
hundreds contained an ingenious mechanism or warhead.
He realized suddenly that although the drive-unit was delivering full boost, performance was only one half
of output.
Rate of ascent was decreasing and the warning instruments were verging on the hysterical.
It was then that the armaments technician drew his attention to the visible upper surfaces of the vessel and
he was startled at the change in colour. It was only when he looked closely that he realized the colour
was due to growth. The upper surfaces had a thin coating of vegetation!
He forced himself to reason. Not enough to cut performance in half in which case, what was on the lower
surfaces?
The tele-device was sent out to take a look.
The ratio of output to performance had now deteriorated to one quarter and upward ascent was verging
on the pedestrian.
The tele-device finally beamed back a picture. It had taken some little time for, in human terms, it had to
descend seven metres below the ship to get a clear view. The lower surfaces of the vessel were trailing
that length of weed and vine.
The pilot, because he was intelligent, did not reject the picture but he suspected some distortion in the
lens.
It was only when his attention was again drawn to the upper surfaces that he accepted it completely. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]