Perry Rhodan 0048 by (40) The Red Eye of Betelgeuse

Author:(40) The Red Eye of Betelgeuse [Betelgeuse, The Red Eye of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-11-01T19:17:29.908000+00:00

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The Gazelle departed from the mothership, Terra , and hurtled downward in a vertical drop. Lt. Tifflor levelled the spaceship off only when within about a mile of the surface of Akvo and then went into a glide pattern. The atmosphere whistled with the passage of the disc-shaped vehicle but offered little resistance. McClears and Tiff sat in the small control room with all viewscreens turned on. Once they thought they saw a shimmering, dome-shaped structure in the water next to the coast of the large, single continent but they ignored it. The Gazelle moved more slowly as it continued to lose altitude and acted like the advance guard of an expedition, such as one that might have been assigned to the task of investigating an unexplored planet. The 2 men waited tensely for the first reaction of the Topides and they didn’t have long to wait. Near the summit of a mountain there was a sudden flare. The viewscreen picked up a sleek projectile that increased its velocity in a vertical climb and was apparently precisely calculated to cross the path of the Gazelle at the proper moment.

Without doubt, a ground-to-air missile.

Tiff activated the defence screen and a few seconds later a flaming detonation and barely perceptible jar announced that the attack of the Topides had been scattered to the winds in the true sense of the word. A second projectile suffered the same result.

"What now?" asked Tiff.

"Quite simple, Lieutenant. Now we’ll look the situation over more closely, as though we were curious Springers." He adjusted the course and turned the helm over to Tiff. "Circle that mountain and get down a little lower. Keep the screen activated and in the meantime I’ll drop a few harmless high-explosive bombs on them, so that they will know that we’ve got something on board that is dangerous—but naturally not too dangerous."

Tiff nodded and grinned. The reptiles would undoubtedly fall for the booby trap and try to take these relatively harmless enemies alive. And that was the plan that McClears had developed. 10 seconds later, below in the primitive forest near the foot of the mountain, several bombs detonated. The shrapnel tore holes in the thick vegetation but hardly caused any other damage. And within another 10 seconds the controls of the Gazelle refused to respond. Tiff struggled in some bewilderment to bring the small spaceship under his control again but he did not succeed. Slowly and steadily, the scoutship lowered and finally landed with a sharp jolt in a broad clearing that was hardly a mile from the coast. From what Tiff could determine, they had landed exactly in the middle of a circle that was formed by small, glistening metal domes.

McClears rubbed his hands. "Everything is working out as smooth as pie. The lizards will be happy to have made such a good catch. We’ll leave our 8 crewmen on board while we pretend to surrender to the enemy."

"Let’s hope they don’t kill us on the spot."

"Don’t worry about that.

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