William C. Dietz Deathday (com v4.0)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

plans; slaves paused in the middle of their tasks; and birds, no longer sure
of when to sleep, fluttered out of the trees. The first shot had been fired.
ON PUGET SOUND NEAR HELL HILL
Part of Simmons consciousness registered the explosion, felt the hull
shudder as a second missile departed from the launcher, and knew that the
first part of her plan was an unqualified success. There was satisfaction in
that but no time to savor it. The patrol boat was doing more than twenty knots
by the time it rounded what had once been known as Governor s Point and made
for open water. There were more ships to attack, and it was her intention to
destroy every one of them.
The plan by which Simmons intended to accomplish that goal was so venerable
that Admiral Nelson would have understood and approved of it.
After rounding the point of land currently known as Hell Hill, the patrol
boat would execute a high-speed turn to starboard and enter the bay where the
remaining targets were moored to the south of Chuckanut Island.
Then, making use of the chain gun mounted on her bow, the naval vessel would
pass between the innermost spaceships and the point, attack targets one and
two, turn to port, and make a run from the southeast toward the northwest.
By doing so, it was the officer s hope that any shells that missed targets
three and four would strike one and two, assuming they remained afloat.
Now, as Darby turned the wheel to starboard and as the deck started to tilt
beneath her feet, the patrol boat entered the artificial light reflected down
from orbit and she got a look at the area where the engagement would take
place.
All of the ships had been secured to large white buoys, each of which mounted
a mast and a blinking navigational light. They rode at their respective
moorings like torpid water beetles, wallowing in the slight swell.
Echoes of the explosion were still dying away as dozens of tiny figures
appeared on rain-slicked decks. Alerted by the noise that had penetrated even
thick steel hulls, Kan crew members and Fon functionaries were eager to see
whatever had taken place. An accident of some sort, most assumed, which would
serve to break the monotony of their daily existence.
Page 192
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The oncoming patrol boat was clearly visible by then, but the majority of the
aliens made the mistake of assuming that whatever the approaching vessel was,
she had to be under Sauron control. Most stood where they were, sought to
shade their eyes, and watched the naval vessel bear down on them.
There was an exception, however, a Kan who, due to the relatively low rank of
his progenitors, was of low status himself. His name was Mor-Sud, and it took
him little more than a single glance to evaluate the situation, draw the
correct conclusion, and return belowdecks. In spite of the fact that the
Sauron vessels had no secondary armament to speak of, the Kan had plenty of
infantry weapons at grasper, including shoulder-launched missiles.
In the meantime, the oncoming patrol boat had pulled within what Simmons
considered to be the kill zone. She grinned a wolfish grin, ordered Darby to
hold her steady, and gave the Gatling gun permission to fire.
What happened next had often been a source of amazement for those who had
witnessed the sight before and most certainly impressed those Saurons
fortunate enough to be watching from the summit of Hell Hill rather than from
the decks of the cargo vessels below.
The chain gun roared like a mythical sea monster as it spit high-velocity
slugs at the first target. Every sixth shell was a tracer, which drew a
straight line between the patrol boat s bow and the alien spaceship.
The hull was strong,very strong, but not strong enough. Explosions sparkled
across the surface of the ship s black hull, metal surrendered, and the shells
forced their way inside, where they found the Sauron power plant. The
resulting explosion was like a gigantic flashbulb going off as the stonemaster
found himself temporarily blinded, and more than a thousand slaves put up a
reedy cheer.
In spite of the fact that the cargo vessels were equipped with Ra
Na-designed repulsor fields, they had never been intended for surface use,
and were deactivated upon entering the atmosphere.
That didn t stop an enterprising Fon from activating the second ship s
repulsor fields, however, an act that required the quick-thinking functionary
to defeat no less than three safeties prior to pinching the correct control.
But, while stopping the incoming projectiles, just as the Sauron had hoped,
the field also pushed the surrounding water away, proceeded to fail under a
massive overload, and dropped the vessel into a hole of its own making. More
than a dozen Saurons were swept from its decks. None knew how to swim.
The waters of Puget Sound rushed back in, found the open hatches, and gushed
through. There were locks, however, strongbox-shaped compartments intended for
use in space, which served to keep the water at bay.
With its hull still intact, the ship popped up out of the water like a
superbuoyant cork, seemed to pause a couple of feet above the surface of
Chuckanut Bay, and exploded when a pair of surface-to-surface missiles slammed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Tematy