evice at its optical center and each pouring
out a tight beam of highly effective energy. It was at these reflectors,
and particularly at these tiny devices, that the small-arms fire was
directed, and the marksmanship of the Dilipics was very good indeed.
However, each projector was oscillating irregularly and each
fighter-plane was taking evasive action; and, since a few bullet-holes
in any reflector did not reduce its efficiency very much, and since the
central mechanisms were so small and were moving so erratically, a good
three-quarters of the Arpalonian beams were still in action.

* * *

There was no doubt at all that those beams were highly effective.
Invisible for the most part, whenever one struck a Dilipic ship or plane
everything in its path flared almost instantly into vapor and the beam
glared incandescently, blindingly white or violet or high blue--never
anything lower than blue. Almost everything material, that is; for guns,
ammunition, and missiles were not affected. They did not even explode.
When whatever fabric it was that supported them was blasted away, all
such things simply dropped; simply fell through thousands or hundreds of
thousands of feet of air to crash unheeded upon whatever happened to be
below.

The invading task force was arranged in a whirling, swirling, almost
cylindrical cone, more or less like an Earthly tornado. The largest
vessels were high above the stratosphere; the smallest fighters were
hedge-hoppingly close to ground. Each Dilipic unit seemed madly,
suicidally determined that nothing would get through that furious wall
to interfere with whatever it was that was coming down from space to the
ground through--along?--the relatively quiet "eye" of the
pseudo-hurricane.

On the other hand, the Arpalones were madly, suicidally determined to
break through that vortex wall, to get into the "eye," to wreak all
possible damage there. Group after group after group of five
jet-fighters each came driving in; and, occasionally, the combined
blasts of all five made enough of opening in the wall so that the center
fighter could get through. Once inside, each pilot stood his little,
stubby-winged craft squarely on her tail, opened his projectors to
absolute maximum of power and of spread, and climbed straight up the
spout until he was shot down.

And the Arpalones were winning the battle. Larger and larger gaps were
being opened in the vortex wall; gaps which