The First Clash
For one moment we gazed toward them and toward the advancing cruisers
that rushed before them, as though held by the grandeur of the
spectacle. The tremendous mass of our air-cities hanging there, high
above the earth the gleaming ranks of our own two thousand cruisers
that poised to east and west, the advancing cruiser-fleets of twice
their strength behind which there rushed gigantically on the great
massed air-cities of our enemies--it was a spectacle breath-taking
enough! But, then, the two enemy cruiser-fleets had come within a short
distance of our own waiting cruisers; and, as they did so, both their
fleets shot suddenly upward, as though in answer to a common order, to
drive above our own cruisers and our air-cities!
Instantly Yarnall had uttered a swift order; and as Connell's quick
voice sent that order flying out to our cruiser-masses, they too
whirled upward and forward to meet the onrushing enemy fleets. Then,
far out in mid-air to east and west of us the great cruiser-fleets had
met, had smashed into each other with blind fury. Through our screens
we saw cruisers enveloped by scores in blinding flares, in that first
moment of combat, as they raged in two separate mighty battles.
But, east and west, our own cruisers were outnumbered two to one
and, despite their fierce resistance, were being pressed steadily
back toward our gathered cities. Closer and closer through the air
toward us were reeling those struggling lines of cruisers, more and
more American ships falling in white-hot destruction as the heat-guns
of their opponents concentrated upon them. Still far beyond them,
to east and west, the colossal masses of the European and Asiatic
air-cities were now rushing on toward us! Yarnall sent another order
flying out, and the next moment a mass of cruisers that had remained
at the edges of our gathered cities, on either side, and had not been
in the first battle, were leaping forward now, like suddenly released
hounds after prey. A score of them to the eastern combat and a score
to the western one they flashed; and each, as it reached the lines
of struggling ships, shot up over them and then flashed along their
lines above them. And as they did, there shot downward from them over
the battling cruisers intense jets of concentrated water-vapor, which
puffed out instantly into great white cloud-masses that enveloped all
the grappling thousands of ships!
Yarnall had brought into the battle, I saw, those great artificial
cloud projectors that had saved us in our first great battle over the
Atlantic! And, even as their white masses enveloped the struggling
ships, he sent forth another order; and our own cruisers shot upward
and downward out of those cloud-masses, at the very instant that
they had been formed. Then, with all our own cruisers clear of the
cloud-masses to east and west, and the European and Asiatic ships
inside them driving for the moment in blind confusion, our cruisers
poured a deadly hail of heat-shells down into the cloud-masses and the
thousands of ships that swirled inside them! Only for a moment was
it that they remained within the cloud-masses before fighting their
way free; but in that moment they had been unable to fire a single
effective shell at our own ships outside, and we had poured a veritable
storm of deadly shells into the cloudy masses. So when, a moment later,
the European and Asiatic ships broke from the vapor-clouds east and
westward, our broadsides had taken toll of hundreds of their blinded
ships, and hardly more than our own forces did they number now!
But, when they broke free from the cloud-masses and into open air
again, they did not advance toward our awaiting ships; instead they
shot back from either front toward their cities, in answer to some
mysterious order. At once a similar order from Yarnall brought flashing
back, to form again above our own cities, our own ships--still nearly
two thousand strong and almost as many in number as the combined
cruisers of our enemies. I heard dimly the great cheers that were
rolling across all our cities, for this mighty blow which had beaten
back our enemies' cruiser-fleets once more. Then those cheers died
swiftly away; for, far away to east and west, the gigantic masses of
the approaching air-cities loomed larger and larger, rushing through
the air toward us!
Eastward the European Federation was approaching, in a gigantic circle
that seemed to fill the whole eastern sky. To us three sitting there
amid our periscopic screens, it was as though all the eastern screen
was filled with that great oncoming mass of cities: Paris, London,
Moscow, Cairo, Rome--all the tremendous air-cities of the great
European Federation--and their capital of Berlin still at the center.
And westward, upon our western screen, loomed equally gigantic the
similar circle of air-cities of the Asiatic Federation. Peking, the
third in size of the world's air-capitals, at the center of its cluster
of cities rushed at the same smooth speed toward us, with Shanghai and
Tokio and Bombay and Rangoon foremost in its circle. From east and west
thus the two stupendous circles of cities rushed toward our own, grimly
waiting; and, as we watched them, there flashed over me in that tense
moment a strange wonder as to the feelings with which one of a hundred
years before would have watched this battle. Then I laid aside that
passing wonder as the two great circles drew nearer to the range of our
great heat-gun batteries. And this, surely, was a spectacle that none
had ever seen or dreamed before--this spectacle of the world's mighty
cities converging swiftly upon each other in battle to the death!
And as strange, too, must have been the sight of us three, sitting
there amid our box-like periscopic screens, the heart of the mighty
tower's base; yet seeing and directing from there all the great mass of
the hundred mighty cities around us.
"They're not going to join forces!" I exclaimed: "They're going to
strike us at the same moment from east and west!"
Yarnall nodded, his eyes intent upon the screens: "Either that," he
said, "or--"
Armageddon!
He broke off suddenly; for at that moment there came to us a giant
salvo of thunder from both east and west, a terrific shock of sound
that rolled deeply through the air toward us from the two distant
armadas advancing! An instant later there was a whistling sound over
our own cities, and we knew that a great storm of heat-shells was
plunging toward them. A few struck with wild bursting flares across our
massed cities, and with their suddenly-released gigantic heat there
appeared great craters of fusing, melting metal. The greater part of
the shells, though, fell short, whirled down to earth to flash on the
ground far below. The range was not yet closed, I knew; and so far our
own great cities remained silent as death. Yarnall was watching now
with hands clenched tightly, as the two circles from east and west came
on. A moment later there rolled from them another great salvo, and
another mass of shells rushed toward us; but, though most of these also
fell short, a greater number than before flared and fused in melting,
searing death upon our own massed cities!
I gazed anxiously at Yarnall, a strange dread taking possession of me
for an instant as the tremendous armadas came on. Would he never give
the order to fire? He was sitting still as a carved statue, his eyes
upon the screens and his lips compressed; and in that moment there
came to me a dim sense of all the terrific responsibility that weighed
upon him, the leader of a third of earth's cities and peoples battling
against the remainder of mankind. Silent he sat and still, while the
great approaching armadas rushed nearer, their cities coming more and
more distinctly into view in our far-seeing screens. In another moment,
I knew, another thunderous broadside would be belching toward us. But,
just as I looked for it to come, Yarnall spoke a single word and, as
Connell's swift voice sent that word flying out to all our cities,
as my own flashed it to all the batteries of our center-most city of
New York, there was a hush of a split-second. And then, out from all
our own hundred giant cities, there broke such a titanic thundering
detonation as seemed to shake violently all the air about us! And, an
instant later, we saw the heat-shells from our batteries falling in
thousands upon the two advancing armadas, upon their rushing gigantic
cities, and flaring into white-hot craters of fusing metal.
Before that terrific blow the two advancing masses seemed to stagger a
little in mid-air, to hesitate for an instant; but then they advanced
steadily onward and their own great batteries thundered an answer to
our salvo. Then, as the two giant circles drew nearer to our own on
either side, the whole world seemed swallowed again in one ceaseless
thundering of sound. The giant batteries of all our great air-cities
burst forth again, to send a storm of heat-shells rushing east and
west upon our enemies! The air between us and the armadas nearing on
either side must have been filled with shells in that moment; for we
saw tremendous flares there in mid-air as shells of ours met some of
theirs and burst. But few of them did that, most of them whirling
through the air to burst and flare in all their awful destroying heat
and brilliance upon the air-cities!
In that instant, as the batteries of all three gigantic armadas
thundered, it seemed that numberless fountains of brilliant light
and terrific heat were springing into being amid the metal towers of
all the three masses of great air-cities! Great fountains of heat
unthinkable, beneath which all the metal about them fused and melted
instantly, and about which all life was scorched into annihilation! Yet
this had taken but the first moment of the battle to accomplish; and
now, as the two great circles of the European and Asiatic Federations
swept nearer, I saw that two of the foremost of the great European
cities, Paris and Lisbon, were staggering and reeling as they rushed
forward with the rest! They had met an awful storm of striking
heat-shells from our own cities; and though their great motors were
deep in their mighty bases, though the alloy of their electrostatic
towers could not be affected by heat-shells, yet the deadly hail of
shells that had fallen upon them had penetrated apparently almost down
to their great motors beneath!
I whirled to Yarnall, "Paris and Lisbon!" I cried: "They're falling
behind the rest a little--they're hit hard!"
He nodded, eyes burning now: "All east batteries concentrate on Paris
and Lisbon!" he ordered; and, as Connell's voice sent the order flying
out to our eastern massed cities, their batteries were thundering with
even greater fury.
But now all their shells were aimed toward the two crippled cities of
Paris and Lisbon, and a hell of bursting shells were flaring across
those two ill-fated giants of the air. It was as though a living wave,
of brilliant heat and light from the bursting shells, were dancing
like lightning across the two cities; and in that instant it must
have burned from them all the life in their towers, even as they were
striving to do with our own. The towers of each city became in that
moment almost a single great surface of fusing, white-hot metal; its
awfulness added to by the exploding of the stores of heat-shells and
magazines beneath the terrific flares. Out beyond them and around them
there swept other cities of the European armada to protect them. There
came Madrid and London and Moscow, all their guns thundering answer;
but now our own gunners were not to be denied of their prey. As our
batteries sent repeated storms of shells upon the two doomed cities
we saw Paris staggering, slipping to a lower level, hanging a moment
there, and then whirling sidewise downward, down to the green earth far
below! In a moment it had crashed, with a terrific rending and cracking
of metal!
I heard a dull roar of cheers rolling across our city above and between
the thunder of the guns, cheers that were redoubled a moment later as
Lisbon too whirled downward to annihilation, a mere mass of fusing
metal. But, even as the cheers sounded they were stilled, and Yarnall
was uttering further orders to our batteries.
From the Asiatic Federation's circle, a great smothering fire of shells
had been falling in those moments upon the westernmost of our own
cities, upon Omaha. Its guns were still thundering in savage answer;
but, battery by battery, they were going silent as there fell upon them
the concentrated fire of the whole advancing Asiatic Federation cities,
the great guns of Peking thundering at the center of the rest. Then
Omaha, too, had slipped and staggered and was whirling down to earth in
fusing destruction, its motors reached by the bursting shells at last!
Avoiding the Ambush
Now it seemed as though in all the world was nothing but thundering
guns and bursting shells; for now as they came nearer toward each other
the three great circles of cities were exchanging a veritable tempest
of heat-shells upon each other. Watching that hell of battle through
our screens, we three sat tensely there. Yarnall's eyes were intent
upon the advancing armadas; Connell, gripping his distance-phone, was
barking orders to the great cities that were thundering about us.
The two giant circles of the enemies' cities were very near our own
now, rushing toward us at their tremendous speed; and, as they thus
neared us, it seemed that nothing could surpass the tremendous roaring
broadsides that were hurled from city to city. I saw Amsterdam and
Madrid staggering a little behind their fellows, reeling beneath our
awful fire, saw Hong-Kong in the Asiatic forces, its great towers all
but levelled by the flaring heat-shells, plunge suddenly downward as
more of those shells reached its motors! But in our own mass now New
Orleans was plunging likewise beneath the fire of the advancing fleets;
and St. Louis was swaying as though badly hit!
But at that moment there came an abrupt exclamation from Yarnall; and
then we saw that the two advancing circles of the enemy cities, rushing
toward our own, were changing their form, were changing swiftly into
two great crescents of which the horns of each were toward us. Those
two giant crescents were moving to join each other, to form one great
circle; and, if they did so, our own mass of cities would be completely
surrounded by the overwhelming numbers of our enemies, the easy target
for all their mighty batteries. We would inevitably be annihilated by
the enclosing circle of the enemy. But, even before I had understood
that maneuver, Yarnall's swift order was flashing out to all our
gathered cities.
"North at full speed for all cities! Unchanged formation!"
The next instant our whole great mass of cities was moving, was moving
with swiftly mounting speed northward! For, as his order sounded I had
jerked open the speed-control before me, had flung back one of the
direction-levers. And, as I did so, there had come a great droning of
motors from beneath, resounding even above the madly-thundering guns,
flinging all the mighty city of New York northward. Also there came
the great hissing of the numberless new tube-propellers that were
jerking it swiftly forward! And, as New York leaped northward at my
touch, all its great batteries still detonating, so were all the great
air-cities that ringed us leaping northward, and all their guns were
still thundering toward the advancing armadas!
But now the enemy had seen our swift leap northward, and, as their
commanders guessed our purpose, they sent their own two crescents
whirling toward us with even greater speed to enclose us before we
could escape! For the next moment it was a race between the three great
city-masses, a race in which our own sought to evade the two that
closed upon it from either side. And, as our cities and theirs raced
through the air at tremendous speed, every gun still firing, it seemed
that we must lose! For, just north of us, the two northward horns
of the closing crescents had almost met, were almost joined before
us! That northward horn of the Asiatic crescent held Shanghai and
Colombo and Singapore and others; while the horn that projected from
the European mass had foremost in it Moscow and Brussels and Algiers.
And as we shot northward in that wild moment, to escape before those
two horns could join, Yarnall sent flying forth a swift order for all
batteries in all our cities to concentrate their fire now upon the
foremost cities in the two closing horns to the north!
At once our own guns were thundering with redoubled fury; for,
unless we could destroy in the next few minutes the foremost of
those cities north of us, they would have closed upon us and brought
our irretrievable doom. So, disregarding for the time all the
other air-cities of the two closing crescents about us, all fire
was concentrated upon the foremost cities of the two horns closing
northward. A storm of heat-shells rushed thick through the air toward
them; but at the same time the masses of European and Asiatic cities
east and west of us were pouring down upon us the broadsides of their
own giant batteries! And beneath that terrific fire, cities among our
mass were falling swift in fusing destruction. St. Louis and Miami and
Seattle were whirling to death as we raced onward; all the people in
them who had been left alive by the shells were meeting annihilation in
the great crash far below!
But, though we were being decimated by the fire of the closing
crescents on either side, our own terrific concentrated fire was having
effect upon the closing horns of cities north of us, and in the moments
while we rushed toward them, Singapore, Colombo and Brussels had been
sent down in white-hot destruction by our awful fire. The remaining
cities in those two projecting horns were still rushing toward each
other with their utmost speed to close the gap between them before our
great circle could speed through it. With Moscow and Shanghai at their
eastern and western tips, the two horns swiftly closed toward each
other; while as swiftly and with every motor droning its loudest, with
every heat-gun thundering northward, we shot onward. For a moment the
whole great race was in doubt; for a moment it seemed to us that our
great mass of cities could flash through that gap before it closed.
But as we watched in tense, terrible hope, even as our mighty cities
raced northward, the cities of those closing horns seemed to make a
last supreme effort, a last great burst of speed. They shot forward,
their leaders Shanghai and Moscow almost racing into each other; and
then, with all their tube-propellers reversed, they were suddenly
halting a barrier of mighty air-cities all around us! But nothing now
could halt our tremendous mass, so awful was our speed and so close
were we to the enemy's line. I saw those cities looming suddenly
gigantic before our own mass as we raced on; heard hoarse exclamations
from Yarnall and Connell beside me; and then with a terrific shock,
that seemed the shock of meeting worlds, our vast northward-flying mass
of air-cities had crashed headlong into the great line of cities before
us!