ake cover. No point to
that--the drones' full force would blast the whole ridge to rubble and
blanket it with their liquid flame.

At least, the enemy's reaction proved his inspiration correct. He
noticed with fierce satisfaction that the scorpions were still doggedly
firing....

The foremost drone came on, slanting down the sky until the gaping
rocket-ports were plainly visible along its swept-back wings. But those
sports still spat no flame. And it came on. It cleared the hilltop by no
more than fifty feet, still diving faster than the speed of sound. It
hit the desert slope beyond and ricocheted like a great projectile,
bursting apart into fiery fragments that strewed themselves for a
thousand yards across the rolling plateau.

* * * * *

Dworn picked himself up from among the rocks where he had been flung by
the shock-wave of its near passage, and was knocked sprawling again by
the earthquake impact of a second drone that thundered headlong into the
earth a few hundred feet away, burying itself under a crater like that
of a huge bomb.

He glimpsed a third craft going down to the west of them, just missing
the rim of the Barrier cliffs and plunging out of sight without a sign
of coming out of its dive.

Those which remained in the air were flying aimlessly. Two of them
passed over side by side, gradually converging until, a couple of miles
away, they locked wings and went spinning down toward the horizon in a
deadly embrace.

On the ground, a like confusion had befallen the wingless workers. Their
scurrying suddenly lost all its busy, planned efficiency. Some buzzed
round and round in drunken circles; others ran head-on into one another,
or tumbled into shell-holes to lie futilely spinning their wheels.

A hush descended on the field of battle. After the fury of bombardment
and counterattack, the relative silence was deafening.

Dworn got to his feet for the second time and helped Qanya up; he
grinned exultantly at her, oblivious of a trickle of blood running down
his face where a rock-splinter had hit.

The scorpion lying nearest the foot of the slope opened its hatch-cover.
A man climbed out, clasped hands together over his head and stamped on
the gray monster's back in an awkward impromptu victory-dance. Cheers
rang faintly from far off down the silenced firing-line.

Then--the spell of premature triumph was rudely shattered.

From the direction of the breached and smo