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.But the one-man speedsters had a truly deadly plan of attack against theliners.The plan was officially frowned upon because of the great risks thepilots must take.They directed their boats at one of the monster ships, allthe power units on at full drive.As close to target as possible the manjumped from his ship, clothed, of course, in an altitude suit equipped with aradio transmitter and receiver.Page 106 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlDeath rays could not stop the speedsters, and with their momentum, theinvaders could not make it less deadly with their heat beam, for, molten, itwas still effec-five.A projectile weighing twenty-two tons, moving a hundred miles a second,can destroy anything man can lift off a planet! Their very speed made itimpossible to dodge them, and usually they found their mark.As for the risk,if the Solarian forces were victorious, the pilots could be picked up later,provided too long a time had not elapsed!In the midst of the battle, the Solarians began to wonder why the Nigran fleetwas decreasing so rapidly certainly they had not caused all that damage! Thensuddenly they found the answer.One of their ships then another and anotherfell victim to a pale red ray that showed up like a ghostly pillar ofluminosity coming from nowhere and going nowhere! The answer? The invaders'ships were becoming invisible! The invisibility detectors were beingoverloaded now, and the hunt was hard, while the Nigrans were slipping pastthem and silently destroying Solarian ships! The molecular motion rays werequite effective on an invisible ship once it had been found.They weredestroying the Nigrans as rapidly as they were being destroyed, but they wereletting some of them slip past! The luminous paint bombs and bullets were nowcalled into play.All enemy ships were shot at with these missiles, andinvisibility was forestalled.At long last the dark bulk of the main fleet approached, a scarcely visiblecloud of tiny darting metal ships.The battle so far had been a preliminaryengagement.The huge ships of the Nigrans were forced to stop their attack,and releasing the last of the fliers, to retire to a distance, protected by ascreen of small ships, for they were helpless against the Solarian speedsters.Invisibility fell into disfavor, too, now that there were plenty of Solarianships, for the Nigrans were more conspicuous when in-visible than when visible.The radio detector could pick them out at once.The entire Nigran fleet was beginning to reveal the disorder and uncertaintythat arose from desperation, for they were outside the Solarian fleet, andtheir ships were lighted by the glare of the sun.The defenders, on the otherhand, were in such a position that the enemy could see only the "night" sideof them the shadowed side and, as there was no air to diffuse the light, theywere exceedingly hard to find.In the bargain, the radium paint was makinglife for the Nigrans a brief and flitting thing!The invaders began to pay an awful toll in this their first real engagement.They lacked the necessary power to cover the entire Solarian fleet with theirdeath rays, and their heat weapons were of little help.The power of the smallships did not count for much and the big liners could not use their weaponseffectively for their small fliers must be between them and their adversary.Despite this, however, the Nigrans so greatly outnumbered the Earth-Venusforces that it looked as though a long and costly war lay ahead.At last the Solarian generals tried a ruse, a ruse they hoped would work onthese beings; but they who never before had to plan a war in space, were notsure that their opponents had not had experience in the art.True, the Nigranshadn't revealed any especially striking generalship had, in fact, committedsome inexcusable blunders but they couldn't be sure.Though they didn't knowit, the Solarians had the advantage of thousands of years of planetary warfareto rely on.This stood them in good stead now.The Nigrans were rallying rapidly.To their surprise, the forces of theSolarians were dwindling, and no matter how desperately this remnant fought,they could not hold back the entire force of the Nigran fliers.At last itappeared certain that the small ships could completely engage theSolarian fleet!Quickly the giant cruisers formed a great dense cone of attack, and at a givensignal, the fliers cleared a hole for them through the great disc-shapedshield of the defenders.And with all their rays fanned out in a 100% overlapPage 107 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlahead of them, the Nigran fleet plunged through the disc of ships at close tofour hundred miles per second.They broke through were on their way to theunprotected planets!The Solarian ships closed the gap behind them, and eighteen of the giant shipsburst into wreckage as powerful beams found them, but for the most part theremnant of the defending forces were far too busy with the fliers to attackthe large ships.Now, as the monster engines of destruction raced on towardthe planets still approximately two billion miles away, they knew that, farbehind them, their fliers were engaging the Solarians.They had left theirguard but the guard was keeping the enemy occupied while they were free todrive in!Then from nowhere came the counterattack! Nearly five thousand thirty-manships of Earth and Venus, invisible in the darkness of space, suddenly leapedinto action as the dreadnoughts sped past.Their destroying rays played overthe nigh-helpless giants, and the huge ships were crumbling into colossalderelicts.With the last of their guard stripped from them, they fell easyprey to the attackers.Faster than they could keep count they were losingtheir warships of space!The ruse had worked perfectly! Nearly all of the ten-man and one-man ships hadbeen left behind them in the original disc, while all the thirty-man lightcruisers, and a few hundred each of the ten-man and one-man crafts sped awayto form a great ring twenty thousand miles farther back.The Nigran fleet hadflown blindly into the ambush.There was only one thing left for them to do.They were defeated.They mustreturn to their far-off black star and leave the Solarians in possession oftheir worlds.For all battle purposes their great force was nearly wiped out,only the fliers remained in force; and these could no longer be carried in theremnant of the great liners.Swiftly they fell back, passing again through thedisc, losing thirty more vessels, then raced swiftly away from the fleet oftheir enemies.The Solarians, however, were not content.Their ships were forming in a gianthollow cylinder, and as the sphere of the Nigrans retreated, their beamsplaying behind them, the cylinder moved forward until it surrounded them, andthey raced together toward the distant lightless sun.The Solar end of thecylinder swiftly closed, blocked by a group of huge ships which had taken novisible part in the battle.The Nigrans had stopped using their rays; and theSolarians followed in armed readiness, not molesting as long as they were notmolested.Many days this strange flight lasted, till at last the great yelow sun, Sol,had faded in the distance to an unusually brilliant star.Then, suddenlyvisible out of the darkness, a strange black world loomed ahead, and theNigran ships settled swiftly toward it.Through the airlocks the great linerssettled to their planet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.But the one-man speedsters had a truly deadly plan of attack against theliners.The plan was officially frowned upon because of the great risks thepilots must take.They directed their boats at one of the monster ships, allthe power units on at full drive.As close to target as possible the manjumped from his ship, clothed, of course, in an altitude suit equipped with aradio transmitter and receiver.Page 106 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlDeath rays could not stop the speedsters, and with their momentum, theinvaders could not make it less deadly with their heat beam, for, molten, itwas still effec-five.A projectile weighing twenty-two tons, moving a hundred miles a second,can destroy anything man can lift off a planet! Their very speed made itimpossible to dodge them, and usually they found their mark.As for the risk,if the Solarian forces were victorious, the pilots could be picked up later,provided too long a time had not elapsed!In the midst of the battle, the Solarians began to wonder why the Nigran fleetwas decreasing so rapidly certainly they had not caused all that damage! Thensuddenly they found the answer.One of their ships then another and anotherfell victim to a pale red ray that showed up like a ghostly pillar ofluminosity coming from nowhere and going nowhere! The answer? The invaders'ships were becoming invisible! The invisibility detectors were beingoverloaded now, and the hunt was hard, while the Nigrans were slipping pastthem and silently destroying Solarian ships! The molecular motion rays werequite effective on an invisible ship once it had been found.They weredestroying the Nigrans as rapidly as they were being destroyed, but they wereletting some of them slip past! The luminous paint bombs and bullets were nowcalled into play.All enemy ships were shot at with these missiles, andinvisibility was forestalled.At long last the dark bulk of the main fleet approached, a scarcely visiblecloud of tiny darting metal ships.The battle so far had been a preliminaryengagement.The huge ships of the Nigrans were forced to stop their attack,and releasing the last of the fliers, to retire to a distance, protected by ascreen of small ships, for they were helpless against the Solarian speedsters.Invisibility fell into disfavor, too, now that there were plenty of Solarianships, for the Nigrans were more conspicuous when in-visible than when visible.The radio detector could pick them out at once.The entire Nigran fleet was beginning to reveal the disorder and uncertaintythat arose from desperation, for they were outside the Solarian fleet, andtheir ships were lighted by the glare of the sun.The defenders, on the otherhand, were in such a position that the enemy could see only the "night" sideof them the shadowed side and, as there was no air to diffuse the light, theywere exceedingly hard to find.In the bargain, the radium paint was makinglife for the Nigrans a brief and flitting thing!The invaders began to pay an awful toll in this their first real engagement.They lacked the necessary power to cover the entire Solarian fleet with theirdeath rays, and their heat weapons were of little help.The power of the smallships did not count for much and the big liners could not use their weaponseffectively for their small fliers must be between them and their adversary.Despite this, however, the Nigrans so greatly outnumbered the Earth-Venusforces that it looked as though a long and costly war lay ahead.At last the Solarian generals tried a ruse, a ruse they hoped would work onthese beings; but they who never before had to plan a war in space, were notsure that their opponents had not had experience in the art.True, the Nigranshadn't revealed any especially striking generalship had, in fact, committedsome inexcusable blunders but they couldn't be sure.Though they didn't knowit, the Solarians had the advantage of thousands of years of planetary warfareto rely on.This stood them in good stead now.The Nigrans were rallying rapidly.To their surprise, the forces of theSolarians were dwindling, and no matter how desperately this remnant fought,they could not hold back the entire force of the Nigran fliers.At last itappeared certain that the small ships could completely engage theSolarian fleet!Quickly the giant cruisers formed a great dense cone of attack, and at a givensignal, the fliers cleared a hole for them through the great disc-shapedshield of the defenders.And with all their rays fanned out in a 100% overlapPage 107 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlahead of them, the Nigran fleet plunged through the disc of ships at close tofour hundred miles per second.They broke through were on their way to theunprotected planets!The Solarian ships closed the gap behind them, and eighteen of the giant shipsburst into wreckage as powerful beams found them, but for the most part theremnant of the defending forces were far too busy with the fliers to attackthe large ships.Now, as the monster engines of destruction raced on towardthe planets still approximately two billion miles away, they knew that, farbehind them, their fliers were engaging the Solarians.They had left theirguard but the guard was keeping the enemy occupied while they were free todrive in!Then from nowhere came the counterattack! Nearly five thousand thirty-manships of Earth and Venus, invisible in the darkness of space, suddenly leapedinto action as the dreadnoughts sped past.Their destroying rays played overthe nigh-helpless giants, and the huge ships were crumbling into colossalderelicts.With the last of their guard stripped from them, they fell easyprey to the attackers.Faster than they could keep count they were losingtheir warships of space!The ruse had worked perfectly! Nearly all of the ten-man and one-man ships hadbeen left behind them in the original disc, while all the thirty-man lightcruisers, and a few hundred each of the ten-man and one-man crafts sped awayto form a great ring twenty thousand miles farther back.The Nigran fleet hadflown blindly into the ambush.There was only one thing left for them to do.They were defeated.They mustreturn to their far-off black star and leave the Solarians in possession oftheir worlds.For all battle purposes their great force was nearly wiped out,only the fliers remained in force; and these could no longer be carried in theremnant of the great liners.Swiftly they fell back, passing again through thedisc, losing thirty more vessels, then raced swiftly away from the fleet oftheir enemies.The Solarians, however, were not content.Their ships were forming in a gianthollow cylinder, and as the sphere of the Nigrans retreated, their beamsplaying behind them, the cylinder moved forward until it surrounded them, andthey raced together toward the distant lightless sun.The Solar end of thecylinder swiftly closed, blocked by a group of huge ships which had taken novisible part in the battle.The Nigrans had stopped using their rays; and theSolarians followed in armed readiness, not molesting as long as they were notmolested.Many days this strange flight lasted, till at last the great yelow sun, Sol,had faded in the distance to an unusually brilliant star.Then, suddenlyvisible out of the darkness, a strange black world loomed ahead, and theNigran ships settled swiftly toward it.Through the airlocks the great linerssettled to their planet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]