erator caused it to dig
deeper into the earth ahead of it, for it gave a sudden downward lurch,
and on coming up out of it, swerved a bit to one side, its offense beam
slicing full into the ship echeloned to the left ahead of it. That ship,
all but a few plates on one side, instantly vanished from sight. But the
squadron could not stop. As soon as a ship stood still, its canopy ray
playing continuously in one spot, the ground around it was annihilated
to a continuously increasing depth. A couple of them tried it, but
within a space of seconds, they had dug such deep holes around
themselves that they had difficulty in climbing out. Their commanders,
however, had the foresight to switch off their offense rays, and so
damaged no more of their comrades.

* * * * *

I switched in with my ultrophone on Boss Handan's channel, intending to
report my observation, but found that one of our swooper scouts, who,
like myself, was hanging above the Hans, was ahead of me. Moreover, he
was reporting a suddenly developed idea that resulted in the untimely
end of the Hans' groundship threat.

"Those ships can't climb out of deep holes, Boss," he was saying
excitedly. "Lay a big barrage against them--no, not on them--in front of
them--always in front of them. Pull it back as they come on. But churn
h--l out of the ground in front of them! Get the rocketmen to make a
penetrative time rocket. Shoot it into the ground in front of them, deep
enough to be below their canopy ray, see, and detonate under them as
they go over it!"

I heard Handan's roar of exultation as I switched off again to order a
barrage from my Wyoming girls. Then I threw my rocket motor to full
speed and shot off a mile to one side, and higher, for I knew that soon
there would be a boiling eruption below.

No smoke interfered with my view of it, for our atomic explosive was
smokeless in its action. A line of blinding, flashing fire appeared in
front of the groundship wedge. The ships ploughed with calm
determination toward it, but it withdrew before them, not steadily, but
jerkily intermittent, so that the ground became a series of gigantic
humps, ridges and shell holes. Into these the Han ships wallowed,
plunging ponderously yet not daring to stop while their protective
canopy rays played, not daring to shut off these active rays.

One overturned. Our observers reported it. The result was a hail of
rocket shells directly on the squadr