Outlaw World by Edmond Hamilton

Author:Edmond Hamilton [Hamilton, Edmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
ISBN: 9781610818674
Publisher: Radio Archives
Published: 2012-09-05T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11: Catastrophe from the Sky

SUCH a sudden reversal of their hopes was staggering. They had been so sure that Ru Ghur and his band were walking unsuspectingly into the ambush. And now the Uranian with his diabolical omniscience, was striking to destroy them.

“Out of the shack!” yelled Curt. “They’ll finish this place in their next swoop!”

They burst out of the wrecked shack into the silvery light.

“There comes the Red Hope!” Bork King yelled. “Qi Thir is crazy! He can’t fight four cruisers!”

The Martians on the outlaw ship had glimpsed the attack and were rushing to oppose the raider cruisers. The Red Hope and the four cruisers spun in a wild battle, atom-guns belching deadly beams.

It was hopeless. Concentrated beams of four ships tore into the Red Hope and sent it spinning down, to crash in the hills north of the valley. Ru Ghur’s four cruisers came racing back toward the metal shack.

“They’ll see us here in the open!” Captain Future cried. “Make for that chasm! It’s the only cover!”

Bork King maddened by the sight of his ship and comrades shot down, was raging like a crazy man. But Curt pushed him on toward the chasm, with the roar of rockets behind them swelling like the thunder of doom. They reached the rim of the chasm, whose jagged, broken rock promised concealment and shelter.

“Down, Bork!” shouted Captain Future. “We can’t fight four cruisers with a few pistols! Once down there, we can get to the Comet.”

Otho, with his wonderful agility, had already swarmed down to a projecting ledge. The Brain was gliding down after him.

Above the rocket-roar of diving ships came the crash of atomic beams destroying the shack completely. The raider ships circled back.

“They’re after us now!” roared Grag. He shook his fists at the sky, his other arm holding Eek and Oog.

“Get down there, so I can hand Joan down to you!” Curt Newton ordered the furious robot. “Hurry!”

Grag slid over the edge, landed heavily on the ledge which Ezra and Otho and the Martians already had reached.

“Here they come!” screamed Joan.

Captain Future whirled, saw that Ru Ghur’s ships were rushing back low over the valley, their bright, deadly beams leaping ahead of them. Before he could get over the edge with Joan, the beams would hit them. He grabbed her and flung himself to one side with her, in frenzied swiftness.

The next moment, the whole asteroid seemed to erupt as the concentrated atomic beams of four ships tore shatteringly into the rock. Stunned, Curt Newton was flung to his face, his body protecting the girl as bits of rocks showered upon them.

Dimly he heard a thunderous crash of falling rock that drowned even the roar of rockets. His brain rocked, and he felt as though he were floating in space.

Dizzily he came back from semiconsciousness to a foggy awareness that he was lying half-buried by rock fragments, with Joan still held protectingly in his arms. “Joan, are you hurt?” he asked hoarsely. “No, only dazed,” she gasped.

Captain Future struggled to his feet in sudden alarm.

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