Perry Rhodan (080) The Columbus Affair by Perry Rhodan

Author:Perry Rhodan [Perry Rhodan]
Format: epub
Tags: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-01-03T09:01:38+00:00

5/ THE MOST CRITICIAL MOMENT IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACELt. Aluf Tehete, leader of the 586th Interceptor Group in Space Pursuit Force 64 was one of the first Terranian officers to hurl his 1-man pursuit ship at the heavy phalanx of the Druuf reconnaissance ships. Basically Tehete’s interceptor was nothing much more than a projectile, 15 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter. Ninety percent of the interior space was taken up by a compact high-powered propulsion unit.

In addition to this it possessed a fixed heavy impulse cannon but whenever the monstrous piece of ordnance was fired it seemed to the pilot that his outer hull was going to blow to atoms. The defence screen was almost pitifully weak but even more skimpy was the area that the designers had allotted to the pilot.

Tehete crouched in a narrow observation capsule which was the cockpit. It was directly behind the sharp bow, which was integral with the cannon muzzle. Actually it was asking a lot to send young men into battle under such conditions but the pursuit pilots were satisfied. They didn’t envy the men who had to serve on board a ‘fat’ ship. Pursuit pilots had more freedom. They saw and heard what was going on in space and they never had to wait for permission to fire. They had to decide on their own, attack on their own and rely on themselves for survival.

The Druuf ships had hardly returned to normal space before they were spotted by the fast cruisers of the SPF-64 and simultaneously Tehete led his group into the attack front. On the control column in front of him was an adjustment that permitted a skilful control of the jet pressure vanes. This provided a fabulous manoeuvrability, the effects of which the completely surprised Druufs were to feel a few minutes later.

The first space combat in defence of Terra was exclusively an engagement between the Earthly interceptor forces and the Druuf scouting units. Not one heavy vessel of the Solar Fleet took part in it. Everything happened too swiftly to permit any manoeuvres on the part of the major fighting ships.

These fleet hornets swarming out of the various cruiser squadrons struck the first successful surprise blow. Equipped with guns that were more suitable to a 500-meter battle cruiser, they generated a nuclear holocaust that annihilated 85% of the Druuf formation in a time-span of 7 minutes.

As Lt. Tehete placed his hand on the firing button at the upper end of the control column he was thinking of the broad steppes of his East African homeland. On the 30 cm screen of the automatic firing sight were the sharply delineated outlines of a long, rod-shaped spaceship. The green indicator of the matter tracker flashed at him insistently, signalling him that he was definitely not dealing with a Terranian ship. The alloys employed were alien, as were the propulsion radiations.

Aluf Tehete was able to determine that the Druuf he was tailing was actually flying at half the speed of light.

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