of the big beams installed, and
apparatus for their fourth was in the station, and being rapidly worked
over. McLaurin did a wise and courageous thing, at which every man on
Mars cursed. He ordered that all IP stations save these two be deserted,
and all mercury fuel reserves be moved to Deenmor and Mars Center.

The Mirans could not land on the North Western section of Mars, nor in
the South Central region. Therefore Mars was not exactly habitable to
Miran ships, because the great beams had been so perfectly figured that
they were effective at a range of nearly twelve hundred miles.

Deenmor station was attacked--but it was a half-hearted attack, for
Mirans were becoming distinctly skittish about fifteen-foot UV beams.
Two badly blistered ships--and the Mirans retreated to Jupiter. But Mira
held Phobos and Deimos. In two weeks, they had set up cannon there, and
proved themselves accurate long-range gunners. Against the feeble
attraction of Deimos, and with Mars' gravity to help them, they began
bombarding the two stations, and anything that attempted to approach
them, with gamma and atomic explosive bombs. Meanwhile they amused
themselves occasionally by planting a gamma-ray bomb in each of Mars'
major cities. They made Mars uninhabitable for Solarians as well as for
Mirans, at least until the deadly slow-action atomic explosives wore
off, or were removed.

Then the Mirans, after a lapse of three weeks while they dug in their
toes on Jupiter, prepared to leap. Earth was the next goal. Miran
scout-ships had been sent out before this--and severely handled by the
concentrated fleets of the IP that hung grimly off Earth and Luna now.
But the scouts had learned one thing. Mirans could never hope to attain
a firm grasp on Earth while terribly armed Luna hung like a Sword of
Damocles over their heads. Further, attack on Earth directly would be
next to impossible, for, thanks to Faragaut's Interplanetary Company,
nearly all the mercury metal in the system was safely lodged on Earth,
and saturated with power. Every major city had been equipped with great
UV apparatus. And neutron guns in plenty waited on small ships just
outside the atmosphere to explode harmlessly any atomic or gamma bombs
Miran ships might attempt to deposit.

An attack on Luna was the first step. But that terrible, gigantic fort
on Luna worried them. Yet while that fort existed, Earth ships were free
to come and go, for Mirans could not afford to stand ne