Mission: Earth "Doomed Planet" (10 page)

The rebel forces, in the interim, had landed in the desert well south of the city. The rumble of guns and flashes of explosions tore the air in that sector. They evidently had found a weak spot in the outer three rings of defenses and were hitting it with ferocity. Apparatus artillery was holding the rebel fleet at bay and the result was a massive infantry action that must be taking a heavy toll of lives. Heller, in the desert car, still rolling south, looked up at the sky far to the east. "Hello, hello, hello," he said. "Snelz, look over there on the horizon." Snelz squinted his eyes against the desert glare. Then he raised his binoculars. "Apparatus warships. Must be from the invasion staging areas. Hey, this don't look good. They're going to hit the rebels in the rear. The Fleet is neutral. I think, as a colonel, we have an appointment anywhere else but Palace City." "Look," said Heller. "The east gate is not under attack. We can roll in." "And get to be a part of battle hash?" said Snelz. "As a general, I demand you enter Palace City. You are still in Apparatus uniforms. I am in an Apparatus general's uniform. That settles it. Roll!" "Haven't I got time to write my memoirs?" said Snelz. '"The Short and Happy Life of Colonel Snelz of the Fleet Marines.' You can do the introduction: 'My Friend Snelz, by the late Jettero Heller.' Driver, pull over while I get out a pad and pen. It shouldn't take very long." "Colonel, could I suggest," said Heller, "that you might be able to sign it Brigadier General Snelz if you go through the east gate?" "Well, it would look better on the cover," said Snelz, "even if they have to add 'post-humorous.' East gate, driver." They rolled toward the tumble of wire and posts which had been this side entrance to Palace City. Even chunks of the road were gone. "What the Hells hit them?" said Snelz. "No dead rebels on this side. Did you do that?" "Things got a little spinny a while back," said Heller. "I should say so," said Snelz, staring at the ripped-up litter of defenses as they drew to a halt at the barricade. A hundred men and a cannon barred the gate remains. A frantic-looking Apparatus major raced up and peered into the car. Heller put on his sand goggles and flashed an iden-toplate. Heller said, "Apparatus Desert Patrol 17 with vital data on rebel attack forces, urgent for relay to Apparatus General Staff!" The major jumped back and saluted. "Pass, General!" The barricade was opened. The ten desert cars sped in. It was a very different-looking Palace City, exposed now to the glare of the desert sun. The light which hotly struck the round, gold palaces was blinding. The power was off and the fountains had no lights under them; the waterfalls had ceased to run. The grass in the parks was scorching, turning brown. Shrubs and flowers were wilting under the searing breath of desert wind. "Marijuana?" said Heller, staring at a plot of ground around a painted statue as they passed. Snelz had never been in Palace City before. The jewelled balustrades and golden windows were blinding him. They were rolling down a wide boulevard. "I don't know what marijuana is but I must be looking at a billion credits worth of gems. No wonder they kept this place secure: acres and acres of diamond-plated palaces!" "Square miles, not acres," corrected Heller. "See that wall and shade trees up ahead? I suggest we pull under them." Snelz looked at the streets. They were crawling with men in black Death Battalion uniforms, the shock troops of the Apparatus. Every hundred yards an artillery piece had to be gotten around. The troops looked deadly and alert but very, very nervous, under strain because of the removal of the city's cover. "You mean you're going to stop?" said Snelz. "Amongst these killers? Doesn't a brigadier general outrank you?" "No, I'm in a major general uniform." "I knew there was a catch in it," said Snelz. "Driver, pull under those trees along that wall." The ten desert cars drew up. They were about three long blocks from the Imperial Palace. The Death Battalions had grown very thick. Artillery was everywhere. Heller swung out of the car and looked southward at the sky through the withering leaves of the trees. The sound of high-up firing was coming from there. Warships were engaged in the stratosphere. Along the ground, as through the pavement, came the thunder of artillery as rebels hit the south gate and tried to penetrate it. That fight was going to be amongst them shortly if the rebels broke through. But something ominous was going on in the sky. Was the rebel spacefleet being wiped out? Heller turned to Snelz. "Could I suggest-order your men to cover up their ears and get down on the floorboards of their cars?" "It's a funny order," said Snelz. "Any particular point in it?" "A tactical diversionary involution that earlier flubbed is about to take place." "I'm sorry I asked." He whistled up his three lieutenants from the other cars and gave them their instructions. A Death Battalion colonel came over from an artillery piece. He was very edgy. He peered under the canopy at Snelz. "What's going on here?" The men in the back of this car and the rest were getting down on the floorboards and cupping their hands over their ears. "Desert Patrol 17," said Snelz. "Just stopping to take a pee." "You're in our field of fire," said the colonel. Heller glanced back at the other cars. The three lieutenants gave him a sign in the affirmative and then clapped their hands over their own ears and ducked out of sight. Heller saw that Snelz was hunched down and protecting his hearing. Heller put the remote that earlier hadn't worked between his knees and put his hands over his own ears. "You're in ours," he said to the colonel and shut his knee down on the remote button. The thousands of pellets he had earlier fired throughout Palace City began to go off at intervals. The colonel stared. He did not connect what now happened to what Heller had just done. He must have supposed these men had heard it already. The colonel's mouth opened. His eyes dilated. With a wild, agonized look, he began to scream! Whole companies, battalions, regiments of men stood rigid for an instant, began to scream and then, with a dreadful rush, began to thunder down the boulevards in panic. They leaped off their gun ledges, they threw down their arms, they tossed away belts and equipment with violence. They ran in circles. They collided with each other. Then men and tanks in roaring disorder scrambled pell-mell for the city gates, letting nothing stop them. They burst into the rear of the Apparatus defenders to the south-overran their own positions-and the men there, catching the panic, rushed out of the trenches and bunkers, out into the desert and straight into the shattering thunder of rebel guns. Heller waited for another five minutes. There were still people in the depths of these palaces for they would not have been affected. He had kept his eye on the Imperial quarters across the park. No one had come out. Heller uncovered his ears. He put the remote back in his pocket. Snelz was a little awe-struck. He was staring at the empty streets, the discarded weapons and overturned artillery. "What the Hells was that?" "Several thousand small noise bombs," said Heller. "I earlier fired them in for a diversion. They emit the sonic saw-toothed wave for terror. You can signal your men to uncover their ears now." Snelz listened to the screaming rout at the south end of the city. "Comets, I'm glad I'm on your side," he said as he passed the signal to his men.

They rolled forward to the foot of the huge circular stairway which led up to the Imperial Palace. Several abandoned artillery pieces stood on the sun-curled lawn. A flying tank was parked at the bottom. The body of a dead driver lay half-in, half-out, where it had fallen when Lombar had disembarked. The desert cars halted. The hundred men got out. Heller looked up at the sky. The surface action may have turned into a rout but a battle was going on up there. He knew the rebels had very few warships. He could not tell at this vast distance but it appeared one group of vessels was being hammered to bits. Even as he looked, some large craft was burning as it spiralled down toward the ground a hundred miles below. He knew the Earth invasion force and Fleet had been intact. Had Lombar thrown this Apparatus armada into the fray? If so, despite the rout which had just happened, the rebel forces were done for. This tank at the foot of the steps, he thought he recognized. A mighty brute, it may have been the one Hisst had used to flee from the Battle of Camp Kill. After a quick word with Snelz, a platoon was disposed outside to cover the entrance. Then, followed by the bulk of the company and Snelz, Heller sped up the broad, winding stair. They came to the wide, curving corridor which led to the entrance chamber. There were no troops in it. Snelz posted men in the doorways of the rooms which opened from it. Heller, by himself, went ahead. A screaming voice was coming from the antechamber. Lombar's! "You're traitors, traitors, traitors! Every one of you! You are all against me! You sold me out!" "No, no! Please Gods, we didn't!" cried another voice. "One of you helped 'Heller to move the mountain! I know it was HIM! Don't deny it! Another one of you just ordered Palace City evacuated! And now THIS, now THIS, now THIS!" There came a roar of pure animal rage. Shrieks of terror. "Lombar!" came a bellow. "Put down that gun! Listen to reason!" There came a shattering roar of a blastrifle on full automatic! Panic-driven bootbeats rushed from the antechamber. Red-uniformed Apparatus generals, spread out, came around the curve in the corridor where Heller stood. The insane roar of the blastrifle from the antechamber was mixed with the even more berserk rantings of Lombar Hisst. A general was caught in the back by a shot. He fell at Heller's feet. His arms reached out convulsively and he caught Heller's legs. "Save me! Save me! Save me!" he screamed. The other generals rushed by. Then here came Lombar, holding the roaring blast-rifle like a flaming spear. Heller leaped back. The arms of the general on the floor tripped him. He fell against the wall. Lombar rushed past, rifle blazing. Heller tried to get to his own handgun, then realized how useless the discharged weapon was. Snelz's troops had pulled back into rooms, diving out of the path of fire. Lombar reached the main entrance. Several generals were still on the stairs racing down. Lombar cut them to bits. They fell like thrown balls of red, streaking the steps with blood. Snelz's platoon outside, taken by surprise, sought to bring weapons to bear. Lombar swept a path of fire over their heads like a flaming scythe. They ducked. Down the steps raced Lombar, shooting as he went. He was taking five at a time, moving too fast to be hit. At the bottom he gave the dead driver a yank and threw him to the pavement. Hisst leaped into the tank and slammed the turret shut. Snelz's platoon fired but their shots glanced off the armor. Heller was coming down the steps. He halted for an instant to try to get the sidearm off a dead general. Then he realized it would have no effect on the tank and threw the bloody weapon aside. Lombar was getting the tank started. Heller leaped down the last ten steps. He grabbed at the snout of a protruding weapon, intending to haul himself up, to get at the turret. The weapon went off. Lombar had fired it from within. It jarred out of Heller's hands.

I

The tank swept forward with a roar and Heller fell to the pavement. The flying monster rose. Its course was erratic. It smashed into a statue at the bottom of a balustrade. Then it curved sideways, beginning to rise. Heller raced across a strip of lawn. An artillery piece was there, one of the heaviest. He leaped onto the pointer's ledge. He began to spin wheels. The tank was flying low. It went across the park. It clipped the central statue there and the sculpture overturned. Lombar was trying to go between two palaces and get cover. Heller was getting the cannon centered, eye pressed to the sight. He was bringing the tank into the middle of the circle. Ahead of Lombar lay the pools where Madison had first found Teenie swimming. They lay there now, no lights or moving water, but they were full and lapping under the hot desert wind. Heller fired! The heavy blast hit the tank below the right rear rollers and up into its belly.

FIRE BLOOMED!

The tank did a complete forward somersault, leaving a blazing loop in the air. It hit the center of the lowest pool with a whistling sizzle and splash! Heller was off the cannon and running toward it. Then suddenly the turret opened. A blastrifle came into view. Heller was totally in the open. There was no cover. He was unarmed.

The tank was nearly submerged in the water. The blastrifle levelled from the open turret. The yellow eyes of Lombar Hisst sighted down it. Jettero Heller pulled up. He was almost to the edge of the pool. There was no cover. He could hear the din of battle somewhere in the sky. He thought if he could only get his hands on Hisst he might end this. But in that split instant it looked like Hisst was going to end him instead. Heller had a handgun. It was almost totally discharged. He doubted it would even cause a bruise at this distance. Hisst fired. Heller had jinked to the left. The shot missed. But Heller had drawn as he jumped. He didn't fire at Hisst. Heller fired at the water between him and the tank. An enormous spray shot up! Under the cover of it, Heller dived into the pool, totally submerged. Hisst's blastgun churned the upper surface, boiling spray and froth. Swimming underwater, Heller reached the bottom of the tank. Looking up, he could get a dim and wavy outline of the turret. Hisst seemed to be having a fit. He was firing all around the tank, hoping to hit the man he knew must be there somewhere. The concussions were hurting Heller's ears and he protected them with his cupped hands. He was running out of air. There was a pocket of it trapped under a tread fender. He stuck his nose up into it and got a breath. Suddenly he was aware that the shooting above him had stopped. He waited a moment. He could hear a rushing sound. He decided to chance it and surface. Ready to spring up over the submerged hulk and get to the turret, Heller put his face out. Nothing happened. He rose up further. Hisst was gone! The man had leaped off the tank and was almost to the far edge of the pool, swimming! Heller, instantly struck out in pursuit. Lombar got out on the edge. He saw Heller swimming swiftly toward him. Hisst unslung the blastrifle and pointed down. He pulled the trigger. It was wet and shorted out. It did not fire. Hisst threw it away. He looked around wildly. He had recognized Heller. His rage went into panic and then deeper into insanity. He saw a flight of steps near to hand. He raced up them. He was grabbed suddenly from either side. Two men in silver livery threatened him with electric battle-axes. Lombar stumbled to his knees. He looked up and stared into the face of a teen-aged girl-Teenie, Hostage Queen of Flisten. "You are my prisoner," she said. And to her men, "Take him inside and knock him out if he so much as twitches!"