n force was to the southwest of our western flank.
And in addition, it seemed, most of the Han military forces at Lo-Tan
had been moved out of the city and advanced toward our lines before our
air-ball attack.

The situation would not have been in the least alarming if the Hans had
had no better arms to fight with than their disintegrator rays, which
naturally revealed the locations of their generators the second the
visible beams went into play, and their airships, which we had learned
how to bring down, first from the air, and now from the ground, through
ultrono-controlled projectiles.

But the Hans had learned their lesson from us by this time. Their
electrono-chemists had devised atomic projectiles, rocket-propelled,
very much like our own, which could be launched in a terrific barrage
without revealing the locations of their batteries, and they had
equipped their infantry with rocket guns not dissimilar to ours. This
division of their army had been expanded by general conscription. So far
as ordnance was concerned, we had little advantage over them; although
tactically we were still far superior, for our jumping belts enabled our
men and girls to scale otherwise inaccessible heights, conceal
themselves readily in the upper branches of the giant trees, and gave
them a general all around mobility, the enemy could not hope to equal.

We had the advantage too, in our ultronophones and scopes, in a field of
energy which the Hans could not penetrate, while we could cut in on
their electrono or (as I would have called it in the Twentieth Century)
radio broadcasts.

* * * * *

Later reports showed that there were no less than 10,000 Hans in the
force to our north, which evidently was equipped with a portable power
broadcast, sufficient for communication purposes and the local operation
of small scoutships, painted a green which made them difficult to
distinguish against the mountain and forest backgrounds. These ships
just skimmed the surface of the terrain, hardly ever outlining
themselves against the sky. Moreover, the Han commanders wisely had
refrained from massing their forces. They had developed over a very wide
and deep front, in small units, well scattered, which were driving down
the parallel valleys and canyons like spearheads. Their communications
were working well too, for our scouts reported their advance as well
restrained, and maintaining a perfect front as between valley