days we trekked, penetrating ever deeper the Red Desert's
heart. But of the abhorred Termans we caught no sight. There was only
the molten downpour of sun by day, and the desiccating numbness of cold
at night. But on the sixth day, as we encamped near an underground pool
located by our experts--we encountered the Termans.

The blue wings of dusk were beating down when suddenly, from every
rampart of sand-dune, every crumbling hillock, out of the very bowels of
the planet itself, they came like an avalanche. They carried slender
metal tubes that spewed polychromatic death at us! Wherever the deadly
discharge touched, would appear horrible burns that ate away the
tissues. But that isn't what paralyzed us. We had known these vermin to
be short of twelve inches tall, but now they reared monstrously _four
feet into the air_! Their black, hairy limbs lashed in an ecstasy of
murder-lust, their beady eyes gleamed with fiendish purpose. And they
had _intelligent leaders_!

The sight of these monsters grown to such awful size struck terror into
the hearts of our legion. Nevertheless, we, who are seven feet tall,
towered above them as we fought with the strength and ferocity of
desperation. Every weapon at our command was brought into play, and they
were blasted and seared by the myriads. Still they came on, blindly,
unswervingly, as if driven by a single prodigious force.

How these life-forms had grown to such bestial proportions was not known
until later. We captured a few and delicately probed them--while still
alive, of course--dissecting their anatomy until we found that some
genius had managed to control their growth through glandular
development. That genius could only have been our Thid!

Soon the desert was covered by a sea of their dead--and ours! The stench
was unbearable, for the Termans exude an odor of their own, particularly
in death, which is sheer nausea ... but lest I offend your refined
sensibilities, O Serene Empress, perhaps it were best that I draw a veil
of darkness over that shambles of horror. At last it seemed as if only
utter annihilation of both sides would be the outcome. Already the
battle had lasted for three obeisances of our Diskra to its parent sun.

And then wisely, our glorious Palladin flashed to us the command to
retreat.

"Already Estka and Kraaj have fallen, with all the populace wiped out,"
said the message. "The Termans are converging upon our capital city!
Return here with all hast