FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   >>  
red Strong calmly. "Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom at the controls. "Main battery, stand by to fire." Strong watched the enemy ship closely. "Aye, aye!" came the answer over the intercom. "Approaching target!" called the range finder. "Closing to fifty thousand yards--forty thousand--" "_Pleiades_ and _Regulus_," Strong called the other two ships of his squadron. "Cut in on port and starboard flanks. Squadron B, stand by!" Abrupt acknowledgment came over the audioceiver as the cruisers deployed for the attack. "Twenty-three thousand yards, holding course." The range-finder's voice was a steady monotone. "Stand by to fire!" snapped Strong. "Two bandits at nine o'clock on level plane of ecliptic!" came the warning from the radar bridge. Before Strong could issue an order countering the enemy move, the voice of the commander of the _Pleiades_ came in over the audioceiver, "Our meat, Strong, you take care of the big baby!" On the scanner screen Strong saw the trails of two space torpedoes erupt from the side of the _Pleiades_, followed immediately by two more from its flanking ship, the _Regulus_. The four missiles hurtled toward the two enemy destroyers, and a second later two brilliant flashes of light appeared on the scanner. Direct hits on the two destroyers! "Range--ten thousand feet," came the calm voice over the intercom, reminding Strong of the enemy cruiser. "Arm war heads!" snapped Strong over the intercom, and, on the gun deck, men twirled the delicate fuses on the noses of the space torpedoes and stepped back. "On target!" called the range finder. "Full salvo--fire!" called Strong, and turned to Tom quickly. "Ninety-degree turn--five degrees up!" The Solar Guard cruiser quivered under the recoil of the salvo and then bucked under the sudden change of course to elude the torpedoes fired by the enemy a split second later. As the Solar Guard cruiser roared up in a long arc, eluding the enemy torpedoes, the Nationalist ship maneuvered frantically to evade the salvo of war heads, but Strong had fired a deadly pattern. In a few seconds the enemy ship was reduced to space junk. Concentrating on the control panel, Tom had been too busy maneuvering the giant ship to see the entire engagement, but he heard the loud exulting cries of the gun crew over the intercom. He looked up at Strong, and the Solar Guard captain winked. "One down!" "Here come squadrons C, D, and E, sir," said Tom
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   >>  



Top keywords:
Strong
 

thousand

 

called

 

intercom

 

torpedoes

 
finder
 
Pleiades
 

cruiser

 
scanner
 

audioceiver


destroyers

 

snapped

 
target
 

Regulus

 
Ninety
 

degree

 
turned
 
quickly
 

degrees

 

recoil


quivered

 

captain

 

winked

 

reminding

 

squadrons

 

stepped

 

delicate

 

twirled

 

bucked

 

change


Concentrating

 
control
 

reduced

 

seconds

 

exulting

 
entire
 

engagement

 
maneuvering
 

roared

 
looked

eluding
 

Nationalist

 
deadly
 
pattern
 

maneuvered

 

frantically

 
sudden
 

missiles

 
deployed
 

attack