While the dampers labored and overheated, and Flyer Command struggled with enemy fighters and bombers overhead, a long-range reconnaissance flyer spotted a sizable convoy of enemy ground forces rushing up from the southwest.
Bade and Runckel concentrated first on living through the air attack. It soon developed that the enemy planes, though extremely fast, were not very maneuverable. The enemy"s missiles did not quite overload the dampers. The afternoon wore on in an explosive violence that was severe, but barely endurable. It began to seem that they might live through it.
Toward evening, however, a small enemy missile streaked in on the end of a wire and smashed the grid of an auxiliary damper unit. Before this unit could be repaired, a heavy missile came down near the same place, and overloaded the damper network. Another missile streaked in. One of the ships tilted, and fell headlong. The engines of this ship were ripped out of the circuit that powered the dampers. With the next enemy missile strike, another ship was heaved off its base. This ship housed a large proportion of Flyer Command"s detector screens.
Bade and Runckel looked at each other. Bade"s lips moved, and he heard himself say, "Prepare to evacuate."
At this moment, the enemy attack let up.
It took an instant for Bade to realize what had happened. He canceled his evacuation order before it could be transmitted, then had the two thrown ships linked back into the power circuit. He turned around, and his glance fell on one of the viewscreens showing the shadowy plain outside. A brilliant flash lit the screen, and he saw dark low shapes rushing in toward the ships. Bade immediately gave orders to defend against ground attack, but not to pursue beyond range of the dampers.
A savage, half-lit struggle developed. The enemy, whose weapons failed to work in range of the dampers, attacked with bayonets, and used guns, shovels, and picks in the manner of clubs and battle axes. In a spasm of b.l.o.o.d.y violence they fought their way in among the ships, then, confused in the dimness, were thrown back with heavy losses. As night settled down, the enemy dug in to make a fortified ring close around the landing site. The enemy missile attack failed to recover its former violence.
Bade gave silent thanks for the deliverance. As the comparative quiet continued, it seemed clear that the enemy high command was holding back to avoid hitting their own men dug in nearby.
It occurred to Bade that now might be a good time to get a little sleep. He turned to go to his cot, and there was a rush of yellow dots on Flyer Command"s pilot screen. As he stared wide-eyed, auxiliary screens flickered on and off to show a ghostly dish-shaped object that led his flyers on a wild chase all over the sky, then vanished at an estimated speed twenty times that the enemy planes were thought capable of doing.
Runckel said, "Landing Force 2 can get here at early dawn. That"s the best we can manage."
Bade nodded dully.
The ground screens now lit in brilliant flashes as the enemy began firing monster rockets at practically point-blank range.
Night pa.s.sed in a continuous bombardment.
At early dawn of the next day, Bade put in all his remaining missiles, and bomber and interceptor flyers.
For a brief interval of time, the enemy bombardment was smothered.
Landing force 2 sat down beside Landing Force 1.
Bade ordered the Stull-gas missiles of Landing Force 2 exploded over the enemy ground troops. In the resulting confusion, the ground forces moved out and captured large numbers of enemy troops, weapons, and vehicles. The captured vehicles were marked and promptly put to use.
Bade spoke briefly with General Rast, commanding the ground forces.
"Now"s your chance," said Bade. "Move fast and we can capture supplies and reinforcements flowing in, before they realize we"ve broken their ring."
Under the protection of the flyers of Landing Force 2, Rast"s troops swung out onto the central plain of the North American continent.
The advance moved fast. Enemy troops and supply convoys were caught off guard on the road. When the enemy fought, his resistance was patchy and confused.
Bade, feeling drugged from lack of sleep, lay down on his cot for a nap. He awoke feeling fuzzy-brained and dull.
"They"re whipped," said Runckel gleefully. "We"ve got back the time we lost yesterday. There"s no resistance to speak of. And we"ve just made a treaty with the East bloc."
Bade sat up dizzily. "That"s wonderful," he said. He glanced at the clock. "Why wasn"t I called sooner?" "No need," said Runckel. "It"s all just a matter of form. Landing Force 3 is coming down tonight. The war"s over." Runckel"s face, as he said this, had a peculiar shine.
Bade frowned. "Isn"t the enemy making any reaction at all?"
"Nothing worth mentioning. We"re driving them ahead of us like a school of minnows."
Bade got to his feet uneasily. "It can"t be this simple." He stepped out into the operations room and detected unmistakable signs of holiday jubilation. Nearly everyone was grinning, and gawkers were standing in a thick ring before the screen showing the map room"s latest plot.
Bade said sharply, "Don"t these men have anything to do?" His voice carried across the room with the effect of a shark surfacing in the midst of a ladies" swimming party. Several of the men at the map jumped. Others glanced around jerkily. There was a concerted b.u.mping of elbows, and the ring of gawkers evaporated briskly in all directions. In every part of the room there was abruptly something approaching a businesslike atmosphere.
Bade looked around angrily and sat down at his desk. Then he saw the map. He squeezed his eyes shut, then looked again.
In the center of the map of North America was a big blot, as if a bottle of red ink had been thrown at it.
Bade turned to Runckel and asked harshly, "Is that map correct?"
"Absolutely," said Runckel, his face shining with satisfaction.
Bade looked back at the map and performed a series of rapid calculations. He glanced at the viewscreens, and saw that those which would normally show the advanced ground troops weren"t in use.
This, he supposed, meant that the advance had outrun the technical crews.
Bade snapped on a microphone lettered "Supply, Ground." In the half-circle atop the microphone appeared an officer in the last stage of sleepless exhaustion. The officer"s eyes twitched, and his skin had a drawn dull look. His head was slumped on his hand.
"Supply?" said Bade in alarm.
"Sorry," mumbled the officer, "we can"t do it. We"re overstretched already. Try Flyer Command. Maybe they"ll parachute it to you."
Bade switched off, and glanced at the map again. He turned to Runckel. "Listen, what are we using for transport?"
"The enemy ground-cars."
"Fast, aren"t they?"
Runckel smiled cheerfully. "They are built for speed. Rast grabbed a whole fleet of them to start with, and they"ve worked fine ever since. A few wrecks, some bad cases of kinkfoot, but that"s all."
"What the devil is "kinkfoot"?"
"Well, the enemy have tiny feet with little toes and no webs at all. Some of their ground-car controls areon the floor. There just isn"t much s.p.a.ce so our men"s feet get cramped. It"s just a mild irritation." Runckel smiled vaguely. "Nothing to worry about."
Bade squinted hard at Runckel. "What"s Supply using for transport?"
"Steam trucks, of course."
"Do they work all right, or do they jump?"
Runckel smiled dreamily. "They work fine."
Bade snapped on the Supply microphone. The same weary officer appeared, his head in his hands, and mumbled, "Sorry. We"re overloaded. Try Flyer Command."
Bade said angrily, "Wake up a minute."
The man raised his head, blinked at Bade, then straightened as if hauled by the back of the collar.
"Sir?"
"What"s the overall supply picture?"
"Sir, it"s awful. Terrible."
"What"s the matter?"
"The advance is so fast, and the units are all mixed up, and when we get to a place, they"ve already pulled out. Worse yet, the steam trucks-" He hesitated, as if afraid to go on.
"Speak up," snapped Bade. "What"s wrong with the trucks? Is it the engines? Fuel? Running gear? What is it?"
"It"s . . . the water, sir."
"The water?"
"Sir, there"s that constant loss of steam out the exhaust. At home, we just throw a few more buckets of water in the tank and go on. But here-"
"Oh," said Bade, the situation dawning on him.
"But around here, sir," said the officer, "they"ve had something called a "severe drought." The streams are dry."
"Can you dig down?"
"Sir, at best there"s just muck. Weknow there"s water here somewhere, but meanwhile our trucks are stalled all over the country with the men dug down out of sight, and the natives standing around shaking their heads, andsure , there"sgot to be water down there somewhere, but what do we use right now?"
Bade took a deep breath. "What about the enemy trucks? Can"t you use them?" "If we"d started off with them, I suppose we could have. But Ground Forces has requisitioned most of them. Now we"re spread out in all directions with the front getting farther away all the time."
Bade switched off and got in touch with Ground Forces, Maintenance. A spruce-looking major appeared. Bade paused a moment, then asked, "How"s your work-load, major? Are you behind schedule?"
The major looked shocked. "No, sir. Far from it. We"re away ahead of schedule."
"Aren"t these enemy vehicles giving you any trouble? Any difficulties in repair?"
The major laughed. "Fangjaw, general, we don"t repair them! When they burn out, we throw them away.
We pried up the hoods of some of them, pulled off the top two or three layers of machinery, and took a good look underneath. That was enough. There are hundreds of parts, all shapes and sizes. And dozens of different kinds of motors. Half of the parts are stuck so they won"t move when you try to get them out, and, to top it all, there isn"t enough room in there to squeeze in an extra grain of sand. So what"s the use?
If something goes wrong with one of those things, we give it a shove off the road and forget it. There are plenty of others."
"I see," said Bade. "Do you send your repair crews out to shove the ground-cars off the road?"
"Oh, no, sir," said the major looking startled. "Like the colonel says, "Let the Ground Forces do it." Sir, it doesn"t take any skill to do that. It"s just that that"s ourpolicy : Don"t repair "em. Throw "em away."
"What aboutour vehicles then? Have you found out what"s wrong?"
The major looked uncomfortable. "Well, the difficulty is that the vehicles work satisfactorilyinside the ship, and for a little whileoutside . But then, after they"ve been out a while, a malfunction occurs in the mechanism. That"s what causes the trouble." He looked at Bade hopefully. "Was there anything else, sir."
"Yes," said Bade dryly, "it"s the malfunction I"m interested in. Whatis it that goes wrong?"
The major looked unhappy. "Well, sir, we"ve had the motors apart and put back together I don"t know how many times, and the fact is, there"s nothing at all wrong with them. There"s nothing wrong, but they still won"t work. That"s not our department. We"ve handed the whole business over to the Testing Lab."
"Then," said Bade, "you actually don"t have any work to do?"
The major jumped. "Oh, no sir, I didn"t say that. We . . . we"re holding ourselves in readiness, sir, and we"ve got our shops in order, and some of the men are doing some very, ah, very important research on the . . . the structure of the enemy ground-car, and-"
"Fine," said Bade. "Get your colonel on this line." When the colonel appeared, Bade said, "Ground Forces Supply has its steam trucks out of service for lack of water. Get in touch with their H.Q., find out the location of the trucks, and get out there with the water. Find out where they can replenish in the future. Take care of this as fast as you can."
The colonel worked his mouth in a way that suggested a weak valve struggling to hold back a largequant.i.ty of compressed air. Bade looked at him hard. The colonel"s mouth blew open, and "Yes, sir!"
came out. The colonel looked startled.
Bade immediately switched back to Supply and said, "Ground Forces Maintenance is going to help you water your trucks. Why didn"t you get in touch with them yourselves? It"s the obvious thing."
"Sir, we did, hours ago. They said water supply wasn"t intheir department."
Bade seemed to see the bursting of innumerable bubbles before his eyes. It dawned on him that he was bogged down in petty details while big events rushed on unheeded. He switched back to the colonel briefly and when he switched off the colonel was plainly vibrating with energy from head to toe. Then Bade looked forebodingly at the map and ordered Liaison to get General Rast for him.
This took a long time, which Bade spent trying to antic.i.p.ate the possible enemy reaction if Supply broke down completely, and a retirement became necessary. By the time Rast appeared on the screen, Bade had thought it over carefully, and could see nothing but trouble ahead. There was a buzz, and Bade looked up to see a fuzzy picture of Rast.
Rast, as far as Bade could judge, had a look of victory and exhilaration. But the communicator"s reception was uncommonly bad, and Rast"s image had a tendency to flicker, fade, and slide up and down. Judging by the trend of the conversation, Bade decided reception must be worse yet at the other end.
Bade said, "Supply is in a mess. You"d better choose some sort of defensible perimeter and halt."
Rast said, "Thank you. The enemy is in full flight."
"Listen," said Bade. "Supply is stopped. We can"t get supplies to you. Supply can"t catch up with you."
"We"ll pursue them day and night," said Rast.
"Listen to me," said Bade. "Break off the pursuit! We can"t get supplies to you!"
Rast"s form slowly dimmed and expanded till it filled the screen, then burst, and reappeared as a brilliant image the size of a man"s thumb. His voice cut off, then came through as a crackle.
"Siss kissis sissis," said the image, expanding again, "hisss siss kississ sissikississ." This noise was accompanied by earnest gestures on the part of Rast, and a very determined facial expression. The image grew huge and dim, and burst, then started over again.
Bade spat out a word he had promised himself never to say again under any circ.u.mstances whatever.
Then he sat helpless while the image, large and clear, leaned forward earnestly and pounded one huge fist into the other.
"Hiss! Siss! Fississ!"