Prophetic words! The segment of barrage here suddenly vanished. A ray darted out. Beside it, a cloud of flying figures came out of the city like insects from a hive.
An inferno of almost hand to hand fighting. It was everyone for himself; and I gave the order for my men to break formation. Ordered them to get up close to the wall if they could ... to strike, with the closest possible range at the base of the enemy ray....
I flung myself forward. Tarrano's men soon were around me. Twisting, darting figures ... tiny beams of death to be fended off with my shield....
A body fell past me in the air ... others, while I looked at them, in the blink of an eyelid, vanished into nothingness ... One of our towers sailing high, suddenly went dark, turned over, wavered down, dismembered with leprous missing parts--and then in a puff was obliterated.
I found myself nearly up to the wall, and higher than its top. The segment of barrage remained broken. I could see into the city--the Ice Palace, still seemingly deserted. And near it, the base of the powerful ground ray which was assailing our towers ... If I could get past the wall, unnoticed, get within range of that projector....
Most of the fighting was now behind me. We seemed to be holding our own ... the squad of girls was coming down; I prayed that Elza might not be among them....
The instrument room had vanished beyond my sight; but Georg's voice said:
"We're sending reinforcements! Gather your men--hold off for a moment!"
From every pan of our line other units of men and towers were coming. We had broken through the barrage here. If we could now, by a concerted rush, get our force over the wall, into the city....
Within the instrument room, Georg sat watching. The inactivity of his own part, the comparative lack of personal danger, galled him. But he was too occupied with his duties to give it more than passing thought. We had broken the barrage at one point ... from every quarter he was rushing reinforcements there to take advantage of the break....
And then Tarrano's trickery became apparent. We had not broken his barrage; he had deliberately withdrawn it, to encourage us, to bring our other units to the spot.... Our power house, neglected, was momentarily comparatively defenseless. The enemy barrage at the point of the wall nearest it, suddenly lifted. Beams darted from the opening ... men came out in a cloud....