way for their fighters that still remained undamaged on the
ground.... Within minutes, unless something happened to turn the tide,
there would be enough flying drones aloft to break the attack and
inflict terrible losses.

Dworn found himself alongside the scorpion, just as its tail gun fired
once more. The muzzle blast almost knocked him down, but he clawed his
way up the side of the machine and began hammering on the observation
turret hatch-cover.

"You in there!" he shouted. "Listen to me--"

The hatch cracked open and a grizzled head peered out, blinking at him
with bewilderment and an automatic fierce suspicion. But at a time like
this anything human was an ally.

"What's the idea?" demanded the scorpion.

The racket of gunfire and of jets made speech almost impossible. But
Dworn pointed out across the sink, shouted: "Fire on the buildings--the
central tower! They're controlled from somewhere--"

Luckily the scorpion leader--if that was who he was--was a man of quick
understanding. He nodded vigorously and dropped out of sight again into
the interior of his vehicle, bawling something to its driver. Dworn
dropped off the machine's side as it lurched abruptly into motion. He
watched, hardly breathing, as it slid to a halt at the bottom of the
hill beside another of its tribe, and with shouts and gestures the word
was passed on.

Inside a minute, all the nearby scorpions had begun banging away at the
structures some three miles distant. The heavy scorpion guns were quite
capable of carrying that far, and their shells had enough punch to do
much damage to the buildings or to the central tower which still loomed
occasionally visible through the drifting smoke....

But it was only a hope, perhaps even a forlorn hope. Dworn was fairly
confident of his guess that the drones possessed some sort of central
communication and control system--but it would take a lucky hit to
disable that nerve center in time.

Qanya stumbled to his side. She cried something he couldn't hear over
the continuous firing, tugged at him and pointed skyward with terror in
her eyes.

The flying drones aloft had suddenly abandoned their scattered strafing
attacks. With deadly machine-precision they wheeled into a single
formation once more, and the whole flight came diving straight at the
scorpion battery's position.

Dworn stood rigid, fists clenched at his sides, watching them scream
nearer.

He ignored Qanya's pleading with him to t