into defensible ground. The rest
of the circle was dark, except for the distant lights of Skilk, where
the nuclear power plant was apparently still functioning in native
hands.

Then, without warning, a spot of white light blazed into being
south-east of the Company area and south-west of Skilk, followed by
another and another. Instantly, von Schlichten glanced up at the row
of smaller screens, and on one of them saw the view as picked up by a
patrolling airjeep.

The army of King Firkked of Skilk had finally put in its appearance,
about three miles south of the Reservation. The Skilkan regulars had
been marching in formation, some on the road and some along parallel
lanes and paths. They had the look of trained and disciplined troops,
but they had made the same mistake as the rabble that had been shot up
on the north side of the Reservation. Unused to attack from the air,
they had all halted in place and were gaping open-mouthed, their opal
teeth gleaming in the white flare-light.

* * * * *

In the big screen, it could be seen that Colonel Jarman had thrown
most of his available contragravity at them, including the combat-cars
that had already started to form the second wave of the attack on the
mob to the north. Other flares bloomed in the darkness, and the fiery
trails of rockets curved downward to end in yellow flashes on the
ground.

The airjeep with the pickup circled back; the troops on the road and
in the adjoining fields had broken. The former were caught between the
fences which made Ullran roads such deathtraps when under air-attack.
The latter had dispersed, and were running away, individually and by
squads; at first, it looked like a panic, but he could see officers
signalling to the larger groups of fugitives to open out, apparently
directing the flight. By this time, there were ten or twelve
combat-cars and about twenty airjeeps at work. In the moving view from
the pickup-jeep, he saw what looked like a 90-mm. rocket land in the
middle of a company that was still trying to defend itself with
small-arms fire on the road, wiping out about half of them.

"The next time they're air-struck, they won't stay bunched,"
Mordkovitz stated. "A lot of them didn't stay bunched this time, if
you noticed. And they'll keep out from between the fences."

In the large screen, a quick succession of gun-flashes leaped up from
the direction of the Hoork River; shells began bursting ov