Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 84: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

82 AIR WONDER STORIES We had already been appraised of the attack that was to be made and consequently waited anxiously for the outcome. How utterly were those fleets of two hundred and fifty planes beaten! How like toys they fell into the power of the Patriarch. Although we were forewarned no precautions were taken by the Mentorites, Until the hour had almost struck, the business of living went about as ever before. Only when the gong struck eleven o’clock in the morning, did it appear as if anything was afoot. Orders were given for every able-bodied winged man and women to gather above the jungle without a moment’s delay. No one else was to leave the cities on pain of death! An Earthbound discovered above the ground would die on the spot. For us all work was suspended and we were ordered to gather in the lounges and stay there, How inglorious I felt herded in a room while Lois, my wife, went to join the legions. I even envied Wormley then, in his work beside the Aero-electro- void. J, as editor-in-chief of the Aerial should have at least been an eye-witness of that conflict. Instead I was forced to hear the results of the day by word of mouth. John, one of my reporters, who took his place in the ranks had the extreme pleasure of writing the dramatic story and all I could do was to edit it. The Battle ORD had come to us that the two hundred and fifty planes had set out from Cuzco and could be expected around noon. Half an hour before the hour we heard the roar of the motors as they drew near. Spread out in a giant circle the one hundred and eighty thousand or so winged watriors waiting quietly in the trees hidden from sight. Each officer of the companies was provided with a radio receiving set small enough to be carried on his belt. Orders came from headquarters in Mentor where the Patriarch waited, stationed in the trees. The six electrovoid machines were already warming up, but had not yet begun their work of sucking down the upper atmosphere over the area of Mentor, Let the enemy drop all the bombs he wished, but not one of them would ever strike their goal, their explosions would only wreck havoc in the wild unpopulated jungles becoming boomer- angs to the very man who had tossed them! Down in Number One city we knew when the planes arrived for they immediately took their station directly over our city. On arriving over the spot, the planes had gathered together about five thousand feet above the trees, then at a command from their commander began to spread into a wide circle. For a short time they stayed poised over the city, awaiting no doubt some sort of development from the jungle, but it lay quietly sleeping in the hot noon sun, Then several scout ships dropped low and came zooming over the trees. They could see nothing that was of interest, and we in the lounge rooms heard their reports as they radioed to their com- mandant. Evidently the Outside was unaware of the fact that we had radio. Our battalions of course used a code. More planes began dropping lower and it could be seen that they were getting into a formation so that they might throw bombs down upon the sea of trees. Now for the first time Mentor acted. The machines began their work, and the enemy were not aware until two of the scout planes commenced acting strangely and their pilots broadcast wildly what was happening. Immediately the battalions above began to draw aside, but no matter in what direction they turned the danger was upon them, and one after another of the planes began to fall out of control! The six machines had complete control of the air for sixty miles around and there was no telling how high their power could be felt, for naturally as they drew the upper air in from one area there was still more to fill its place. The air overhead was losing its light as the elec- trically-charged ionized-dust atmosphere could not conduct the light of the sun as directly as hereto- fore. And plane after plane was beginning to crash on the metal plates. Some of the planes were trying to discharge their supply of bombs, but they went the same way as the planes and con- sequently many of the planes went up into flames ere they struck the barrier. _ Tn less than ten minutes after the beginning of the fight almost a hundred planes had succumbed, and those who had warily risen higher and higher hovered above the earth uncertain where to turn. They could be seen turning and moving out in all directions as they attempted to find an area that was free from menace. A number did reach the outskirts of that great “hole” only to be caught in the whirlpools formed in the outer spaces by the terrific suction that was exerted. And they too fell. Seeing what had happened to their fellows the hundred or so planes that were left, now took to circling about within the sixty mile circle fearful of going lower and fearful of being caught by the whirlpools. It was then that Patriarch Mentor gave command to the waiting companies outside the circle, In one concerted rush fifty thousand flying men and women took to the air rising straight up to the heavens wherein the remaining “enemy” were circling, still uncertain. The planes saw them com- ing. Here at last was a tangible enemy to fight. They gathered into formation and awaited the on- coming flying men. I have mentioned earlier that I knew of no other destructive weapon possessed by the Mentorites outside of the Machines, but I discovered they were not unprepared to do battle, They knew electricity perhaps better than the world. We have had scientists who have made for themselves thunder- bolts, but as yet no use had ever been discovered for them. The Mentorites did have a use for them. Each man and woman carried a small stick, harm- less enough Jooking, but harmless it was not; for each “stick” had within its barrel six discharges, discharges of electricity that could travel a thou- sand feet, and with each discharge of a thunder- bolt a plane fell. That had been the reason for the practice battles with red marked wands! Ten planes went down under the spitting of the thunderbolts before the two parties drew together, but now the aeroplanes were in the midst of the flyers, and the machine guns were being turned upon the flying men. A few of them fell, but their ranks were scarcely touched, for the pilots busily comnliclooolks.comn