The War of the giants by Fletcher Pratt Read online

  the airplanes were locked in their battle far

  that encumbered the irregular edges of old

  above.

  shell pits.

  There was a sudden grinding crash in

  The day grew paler; the river swung

  one of the casemates of the Thunderbolt

  silvery across the landscape. There was not a

  behind where the small man sat above his

  gun, not a man, not a trench in sight—only the motor. He jerked his head round to see the

  iron monsters moving slowly along with the

  door bulged sharply inward, with wisps of

  whippets nosing here and there among them

  smoke eddying through the cracks. When he

  and the cruisers along the flanks. Within his

  looked again there was a red stain on the steel.

  ship, the small man could hear nothing but the He felt sick. An officer came down the

  smooth sound of his motor.

  catwalk, clinging to projections as the craft

  Suddenly there was a startling high

  relied, looking like a deep-sea diver in his

  scream followed by a quick, virile crash, and a helmet. He did not even glance at the bulged-fountain of earth and vegetation rose smokily

  out door and its bloody stain. A curious pale

  into the air two hundred yards behind the

  mist—the noxious mist of mingled poisonous

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  gases, filled the interior of the ship.

  bottom of the long parabola, then swung up

  The water churned to foam as the and away.

  battleship and cruiser tanks began to cross the river, wallowing clumsily, and attended by

  The War of the Giants

  whippets that dashed through the shallows like terriers. Behind the crest of hills that lay two AS they made the turn, their missiles sought

  miles back from the opposite bask the robot

  the tanks through the murk—fish-shaped

  batteries of the enemy were working torpedoes with long wings at their heads, feverishly, served from underground by carrying sound devices like those controlling sweating gunners, men and women, who piled

  the robot guns, and trailing behind them the

  shells on the elevators which carried them to

  pennons of smoke that indicated rocket

  the guns. From them, mechanical arms propulsion. Nearly all fell fallow, blowing reached out to stuff the ammunition into their great pits in the ground, their sound control

  maws; the breech blocks snapped shut, failing in the multiple uproar of the battle. But animated by a spirit of their own; and the big one struck a whippet and disorganized it into

  guns, making automatic corrections for range

  tattered ribbons of metal and another, its

  and deflection by means of disc-shaped mechanical ears caught by the sound of a mechanical ears, concealed in rubbish heaps,

  badly working motor on a cruiser tank, struck

  under trees, everywhere—some of them even

  the landship squarely at the base of the turret.

  in the very ground the tanks were crossing—

  In a burst of intense flame the moving fort of fired themselves at the moment when the steel folded together as though it had been range was correct. Further back, heavier guns

  cardboard, the turret pitching in on the ruins of on railroad trucks had begun to fire slowly

  the rest. When the fleet had passed only the

  under airplane observation.

  forefront of the lank remained, leaning at an

  Nor did all the shells fall among the

  odd angle above the shattered remains from

  tanks. For the porcupine-like machine the which bright flames still burned.

  small man had seen the night before had

  Right on the heels of the aerial attack a

  improved the dark hours by digging itself well pillar of smoke between two hills announced

  underground and now from a dozen or more

  the approach of an enemy tank fleet, rushing

  sources was releasing waves of sound that

  up to support the now close-pressed robot

  brought a good half of the shells from the

  guns, and at almost the same time, a titanic

  robot batteries crashing uselessly down in the discordant buzzing beat down all the other

  woods.

  sounds of battle. Another, or perhaps two

  But now a new element entered the

  more, of the queer porcupine-tanks had

  battle as some few airplanes broke free from

  followed the attackers in the rear and were

  the combat above the clouds and swooped like

  adding their sound camouflage to the din. The

  swallows on the mass of black smoke that hid

  robot guns swung to and fro, helpless in this

  the attacking tanks, Down after them swung

  torrent of sound, till the operators were fain to pursuit planes; up from the round rose slender, come out of their pits, cut loose the automatic interweaving bands of smoke as the anti-controls and fire them by the old hand method.

  aircraft guns of the whippets went into a

  Of all this the small man above his

  frenzy of action against them. Here and there

  motor knew nothing. Locked in his gas helmet

  one burst into flame or fell with the peculiar he heard only the irregular shock of bursting

  dizzy motion of a machine out of control, but

  missiles around the tank, saw only the jerking the rest held on, releasing their missiles at the indicator before him as more or less speed was

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  demanded. To the gunner with the scarred

  flames of a peculiar orange hue pouring out of chin the battle was hardly more intelligible.

  her turret. A third staggered out of line like an The only thing his eyes could catch through

  injured animal and moved oddly across the

  the malleable glass that formed his window

  space between the two fleets, still firing

  was the billowy smoke, shot with color here

  steadily, but losing motion and life as it

  and there as a shell exploded. The odor of the became the target of the concentrated fires.

  helmet was fetid, the strain of merely waiting But at that moment there came a huge

  intense; again and again the turret gun above

  uprush of dirt right ahead, of the Thunderbolt.

  went off, firing at its far-away targets, but

  Hammers pounded on her carapace; she

  there came no call for the broadside artillery.

  lurched violently through a snowstorm of dirt

  Then without warning, the smoke and rocks, across the crater the shell had thinned and altogether ceased. He perceived

  made. The gunner caught a glimpse of

  they were just mounting a ridge; two or three

  whippets emitting smoke again; of the enemy

  whippets dashed past for the head of the line, fleet, which should have been retreating,

  and he noted that one of them had her wide

  closing in instead. The robot guns, hand-

  torpedo-port open and that an aerial torpedo

  trained now, were in action again, and at

  was pointing outward, ready for release. The

  point-blank range.

  bell for loading rang sharply, the Thunderbolt pivoted round like a ballet dancer, and through NOTHING visible but smoke; a loud-speaker

  his peep-hole the gunner caught a glimpse of

  voice began suddenly to call off range and

  dim figures emerging from a low-hung cloud

  deflections, and the gunner with the scarred
>
  of smoke that moved toward them down a

  chin worked like a fiend, perspiring violently gentle slope a mile and a half away. The turret inside his coat of mail, setting his sights on the gun fired again, with a violence audible even

  indicator that ran round the gun mouth

  in that torrent of sound, and the gunner just

  according to the data shouted through the

  caught a glimpse of the trail of smoke that

  loud-speaker. A thinner streak of smoke;

  marked the passage of an aerial torpedo bound

  through it a cruiser visible, canted over on her toward the enemy fleet. The Thunderbolt

  side and burning vigorously. “230, deflection

  changed direction again. A shell pitched a

  fifteen right—fire!” They bumped violently

  column of dirt across his vision and a small

  over something, whether tree, house, ruins of

  voice cried— “Fire at will, concentrate on

  a tank or merely a lump in the ground the

  third tank,” and to his astonishment he was

  gunner could not tell. Then a stunning

  looking down the sights at a line of enemy

  explosion which drowned the insistent voice

  cruisers. He went into a fury of action.

  for a moment; the Thunderbolt changed

  Smoke, dirt, flame—the sound of a

  direction with such speed as to almost throw

  million anvils as the fleets, firing together, him from his seat, and through his window he

  swept round each other in a great circle. saw the torn remains of a big tank, her Perhaps five minutes that were an eternity;

  forepart shot with flames, one of her side guns then from the opposing fleet billowed clouds

  drooping like a melted candle, while two or

  of smoke as, too late, they made the fatal

  three of her crew ran a step or two from the

  discovery that they were opposing a battleship wreck and fell writhing to the ground. On a

  attack with mere cruisers. Too late—a still-intact stern-plate a painted halo still mushroom growth of smoke and flame showed.

  marked where one had been blown up; another

  “My God,” thought the gunner. “The

  was stopped where her fleet left her, with

  Glory’s gone.” What did it mean? Defeat? and

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  he wondered would it would be like to be a

  port wide open. The gunner with the scarred

  prisoner, carried off to work their mines. Not chin saw with perfect clarity that the torpedo so very different from—

  was about to be launched directly at him, from The smoke rolled clear again, and he

  a distance of not over three hundred yards—

  looked out on a different section of landscape.

  realized in a flash that it would blow the

  Right against them stood the slope of a hill:

  Thunderbolt into a thousand fragments, and out of the tail of his eye he could see the

  ducked. He heard no more....

  wreckage of a big robot gun, and as the tank

  ...In the rear, the track-laying machines

  swung along, caught sight of another, pointed

  were already preceding the railroad artillery-to right at them, but riven by a direct hit in the positions along the river, now cleared by the

  fraction of a second before it could fire. The victory.

  enemy’s fleet must be done for! They were

  * * *

  cleaning out the guns. A jet of steam ran

  “I congratulate you,” said the brown-

  round the inside of the casemate, clearing the faced general. “It was a much better result

  gas. All over? Not quite, for the frightful than I had hoped for. Of course, they were uproar without did not seem to have decreased

  foolish in trying to stand off the attack with in the least, though there appeared to be no

  their position artillery and in supporting with shells falling near the Thunderbolt. The nothing but a squadron of cruisers; but I think gunner swung his window in its pivots, noted

  you were lucky, all the same.”

  that the Thunderbolt was leading the line of The fussy little man could not forebear

  tanks along the reverse slope of a hill, with the a smile of triumph. “Yes,” he said, “on the

  turret gun firing occasionally as the observers whole I am satisfied with the result. The

  reported some new gun position visible. The

  positions along the river will certainly force battle was over for him, however. The turret

  these people to try an attack sooner or later, gun would take care of the rest of that robot

  and then we know what we can do.... And our

  artillery before his gun ever got within range.

  losses were not so extraordinary, either. Two

  See there was one, now, tipped over on

  battleships and three cruisers.”

  its side, the delicate mechanism smashed by a

  “Yes, yes,” said the brown-faced

  direct hit, the corpses of two or three gunners general. “I’m a little sorry about the old

  lying about. He could have laughed— And

  Thunderbolt though. Knew some of the men then, out of the shadow of the ruined gun,

  in her. Did I ever tell you I commanded her

  came one little whippet tank, with its torpedo once?”