Battlefield Earth

“You can work this out with Glenca

“We had a fu

Jo

Robert took a deep breath, but before he went on a ru

“The tank is a 'Bash Our Way to Glory.' It 's down there at the other end of the ravine. Oh, don't be alarmed. It 's in our hands. It came out of the garage port and came right straight toward us. We hit it with bazookas and they didn't even dent it. But it didn't fire back. It went right straight down to the end of the ravine there and threw out an intercom through an atmosphere lock and said it wanted to talk to the 'Hockner Leader.' It wanted a guarantee of safety in return for cooperation.”

Jo

“It’s a kind of weird scene,” continued Robert. “When they got a safety guarantee they came out of the tank. They said they were the Chamco brothers. We got interrogation going. They said they knew Terl had sold out. It seems there was a mine manager named Char, a friend of theirs, who turned up missing at the firing. Well, this Char told the Chamco brothers that there'd been a murder. That Terl had murdered the head of the planet so he could appoint a new Planet Head named Ker. And that Ker, this afternoon, had denied them ammunition for the tank. The Chamcos claim Terl and Ker have sold out to some race called the 'Hockners of Duraleb' and even launched the drone to wipe out the other minesites."

“I suppose it's mostly correct,” said Jo

“There's more,” said Robert the Fox. “They haven't got tank and plane fuel in there, and we've cut down four sorties of theirs to get to the fuel and ammunition dump way over there. But they have plenty of blast rifle ammunition. We don't have men enough for an assault-”

“What else?” said Jo

“Well, it's not all good news. It seems there's sixteen levels of compound under us. Each level stretches for acres. Quarters, shops, garages, hangars, offices, workrooms, libraries, supply warehouses-”

“I didn't know it was that much, but that's not bad news either.”

“Wait. If that thing were to be hit with radiation this whole assault force would be blown to bits. We're fighting on a loaded bomb. We must save those planes and equipment if we have to defend Earth. And we need them for reconstruction if we really did blow up Psychlo."

“You'll have air support shortly,” said Jo

“Well, the Chamco brothers say they know what will happen in there. That we'll flood the place with air! They said they know how 'us Hockners' took the Duraleb system back. They say there aren't enough breathe-gas masks and vials but the recirculating system has plenty. These Chamco brothers are design and maintenance engineers. They promised to help us if we paid them. They say the whole planet has been on half-pay and no bonuses. And they don't want to be killed in an 'air flood' as they called it.”

Jo

“The Chamco brothers told us the breathe-gas recirculating system was exterior to the base and air-cooled, and they were tricked into admitting all one had to do was shoot up the intake pipes from the cooling system and the pumps would fill the whole compound with air.”

“You got it all solved,” said Jo

“Yes, but we need the intakes shot up at long range from the air.”

“That shouldn't take long. As soon as

Glenca

“Well, I think you ought to do it,” said Robert. “It’s not very dangerous and if you fire from about a half-mile off-'

“I can do that as I take off.”

“But you should come back down here to verify-”

Suddenly Jo

The veteran spread his hands. "Jo

Jo

“Then I’m coming with you!” said Robert the Fox.

“You're going to stay right here and direct this assault!”

A mine car ricocheted into the end of the ravine and came to a halt. The driver grabbed an assault rifle and ran up to the lines to get back into the battle. Glenca

“What's the matter?” said Glenca

Robert the Fox put an arm around Glenca

“Goodbye, Sir Robert,” Jo

“Good luck,” said Robert sadly. He knew Jo

Jo

Waiting until the drone was– what, five hours?– from Scotland was cutting it a bit close. If attacks on it did succeed they might blow gas canisters, and a freak wind could wipe out Scotland and Sweden as well. There was much to be said for attack in force. But even that guaranteed no success. And no one had ever tried a head-on smash at the drone with a Psychlo battle plane traveling at maximum with all guns blazing at the moment of collision. As a last resort, that would destroy almost anything. He hadn't said anything about it to Sir Robert. Surely the old man hadn't guessed it.