Air Wonder Stories, December 1929 — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

eo ee er ae mn ls | ey > “ | CITIES IN THE AIR 347 ‘ese >. |. f Ce Trees cornea. | from all our own hundred giant cities, there broke such a titanic thundering detonation as seemed to shake violently all the air about us! And, an instant later, we saw the heat-shells from our batteries falling in thousands. upon the two advancing armadas, upon their tushing gigantic cities, and flaring into white-hot craters of fusing metal. Before that terrific blow the two advancing masses seemed to stagger a little in mid-air, to hesitate for an instant; but then they advanced: steadily onward and their own great batteries thundered an answer to our salvo. Then, as the two giant circles drew nearer to our own on either side, the whole world seemed swallowed again in one ceaseless thundering of sound, The giant batteries of all our great air-cities burst forth again, to send a storm of heat-shells rushing east and west upon our enemies! The air between us and the armadas nearing on either side must-have been filled with shells in that moment; for we saw tremendous flares there in mid-air as shells of ours met some of theirs and burst. But few of them did that, most of them whirling through the air to. burst and flare in all their awful destroying heat and_ brilliance upon the air-cities ! In that instant, as the batteries of all three gigantic armadas thundered, it seemed that numberless foun- tains of brilliant light and terrific heat were springing into being amid the metal towers of all the three masses of great air-cities! Great fountains of heat unthink- able; beneath which all the metal about them fused and melted instantly, and about which all life was scorched into annihilation! Yet this had taken but the first moment of the battle to. accomplish; and now; as the two great circles of the European and Asiatic Federa- tions swept nearer, I saw that two of the foremost of the great European cities, Paris and Lisbon, were stag- gering and reeling as they rushed forward with the rest! They had met an awful storm of striking heat- shells from our own cities; and though their great motors were deep in their mighty bases, though the alloy of their electrostatic towers could not be affected by heat-shells, yet the deadly hail of shells that had fallen upon them had penetrated apparently almost down to their great motors beneath! I whirled to Yarnall, “Paris and Lisbon!” I cried: “They're falling behind the rest a littlke—they’re hit hard !’” He nodded, eyes burning now: “All east batteries concentrate on Paris and Lisbon!” he ordered; and, as Connell’s voice sent the order flying out to our eastern massed cities, their batteries were thundering with even greater fury. But now all their shells were aimed toward the two crippled cities of Paris and Lisbon, and a hell of burst- ing shells were flaring across those two ill-fated giants of the air. It was as though a living wave, of bril- liant heat and light from the bursting shells, were dan- cing like lightning across the two cities; and in that instant it must have burned from them all the life in their towers, even as they were striving to do with our own. The towers of each city became in that moment almost a single great surface of fusing, white- hot metal; its awfulness added to by the exploding of the stores of heat-shells and magazines beneath the terrific flares. Out beyond them and around them there swept other cities of the European armada to protect them. There came Madrid and London and Moscow, all their guns thundering answer; but now our own gunners were not to be denied of their prey. As our batteries sent repeated_storms of shells upon the two doomed cities we saw Paris staggering, slip- ping to a lower level, hanging a moment there, and then whirling sidewise downward, down to the green eatth far below! In a moment it had crashed, with a terrific rending and cracking of metal! I heard a dull roar of cheers rolling across our city above and between the thunder of the guns, cheers that were redoubled a moment later as Lisbon too whirled downward to annihilation, a mere mass of fusing metal. But, even as the cheers sounded they were stilled, and Yarnall was uttering further orders to our batteries. From the Asiatic Federation’s circle, a great smoth- ering fire of shells-had been falling in those moments upon the westernmost of our own cities, upon Omaha. Its guns were still thundering in savage answer; but, battery by battery, they were going silent as there fell upon them the concentrated fire of the whole advancing Asiatic Federation. cities, the great guns of Peking thundering at the center of the rest. Then Omaha, too, had slipped and staggered and: was whirling down to earth in fusing destruction, its motors reached by the bursting shells at last! Avoiding the Ambush No it seemed as though in all the world was nothing but thundering guns and bursting shells ; for now as they came nearer toward each other the three great circles of ‘cities were exchanging a veritable tem- pest of heat-shells upon each other, Watching that hell of battle through our screens, we three sat tensely there. Yarnall's eyes were intent upon the advancing armadas; Connell, gripping his distance-phone, was barking orders to the great cities that were thundering about us. The two giant circles of the enemies’ cities were very near our own now, rushing toward us at their tremendous speed; and, as they thus neared us, it seemed that nothing could surpass the tremendous roaring broadsides that were hurled from city to city. I saw Amsterdain and Madrid staggering a little behind their fellows, reeling beneath our awful fire, saw-Hong- Kong in the Asiatic forces, its great towers all but evelled by the flaring heat-shells, plunge suddenly down- watd as more of those shells reached its motors! But in our own mass now New Orleans was plunging like- wise beneath the fire of the advancing fleets; and St. Louis was, swaying as though badly hit! But at that moment there came an abrupt exclama- tion from Yarnall; and then we saw that the two ad- vancing circles of the enemy cities, rushing toward our own, were changing theit form, were changing swiftly into two great crescents of which the horns of each were toward us. Those two giant crescents were mov- ing to join each other, to form one great circle; and, if they did so, our own mass of cities would be com- pletely surrounded by the overwhelming numbers of our enemies, the easy target for all their mighty bat- teries. We would inevitably be annihilated by the enclosing circle of the enemy. But, even before I had understood that maneuver, Yarnall’s swift order was flashing out to all our gathered cities. “North at full speed for all cities! Unchanged for- mation !”” : The next instant our whole great mass of cities was moving, was moving with swiftly mounting speed north- ward! For, as his order sounded [ had jerked open the speed-control before me, had flung back one of the direction-levers, And, as-I did so, there had come a great droning of motors from beneath, resounding even above the madly-thundering guns, flinging all the mighty city of New York northward. Also there came the — comicbooks.com > —V—_—— rl eee eae ee eee ee