<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></SPAN>CHAPTER XIV<br/> The Destruction of Lo-Tan</h2>
<p class="cap">"<span class="dcap">How</span> did you know I had been
taken to Lo-Tan as a prisoner?"
I asked the little group of
Wyoming Bosses who had assembled
in Wilma's tent to greet
me. "And how does it happen
that our gang is away out here in
the Rocky Mountains? I had expected,
after the fall of Nu-Yok,
that you would join the forest
ring around Bah-Flo (Buffalo I
called it in the Twentieth Century)
or the forces beleaguering
Bos-Tan."</p>
<p>They explained that my encounter
with the Han airship had
been followed carefully by several
scopemen. They had seen my
swooper shoot skyward out of
control, and had followed it with
their telultronoscopes until it had
been caught in a gale at a high
level, and wafted swiftly westward.
Ultronophone warnings
had been broadcast, asking western
Gangs to rescue me if possible.
Few of the Gangs west of
the Alleghanies, however, had
any swoopers, and though I was
frequently reported, no attempts
could be made to rescue me.
Scopemen had reported my capture
by the Han ground post,
and my probable incarceration
in Lo-Tan.</p>
<p>The Rocky Mountain Gangs,
in planning their campaign
against Lo-Tan, had appealed
to the east for help, and Wilma
had led the Wyoming veterans
westward, though the other eastern
Gang had divided their aid
between the armies before Bah-Flo
and Bos-Tan.</p>
<p>The heavy bombardment which
I had heard from Lo-Tan, they
told me, was merely a test of the
enemy's tactics and strength, but
it accomplished little other than
to develop that the Hans had the
mountains and peaks thickly
planted with rocket gunners of
their own. It was almost impossible
to locate these gun posts,
for they were well camouflaged
from air observation, and widely
scattered; nor did they reveal
their positions when they went
into action as did their ray batteries.</p>
<p>The Hans apparently were
abandoning their rays except for
air defense. I told what I knew of
the Han plans for abandoning
the city, and their escape tunnels.
On the strength of this, a
general council of Gang Bosses
was called. This council agreed
that immediate action was necessary,
for my escape from the city
probably would be suspected,
and San-Lan would be inclined
to start an exodus at once.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">As</span> a matter of fact, the destruction
of the city presented
no real problem to us at all.
Explosive air balls could be sent
against any target under a control
that could not be better were
their operators riding within
them, and with no risk to the operators.
When a ball was exploded
on its target by the operator,
or destroyed by accident, he simply
reported the fact to the supply
division, and a fresh one was
placed on the jump-off, tuned to
his controls.</p>
<p>To my own Gang, the Wyomings,
the Council delegated the
destruction of the escape tunnels
of the enemy. We had a
comfortably located camp in a
wooded canyon, some hundred
and thirty miles northeast of the
city, with about 500 men, most of
whom were bayonet-gunners,
350 girls as long-gunners and
control-board operators, 91 control
boards and about 250 five-foot,
inertron-protected air balls,
of which 200 were of the explosive
variety.</p>
<p>I ordered all control boards
manned, taking Number One
myself, and instructed the others
to follow my lead in single file,
at the minimum interval of safety,
with their projectiles set for
signal rather than contact detonation.</p>
<p>In my mind I paid humble
tribute to the ingenuity of our
engineers as I gently twisted the
lever that shot my projectile vertically
into the air from the
jump-off clearing some half mile
away.</p>
<p>The control board before me
was a compact contrivance about
five feet square. The center of it
contained a four-foot viewplate.
Whatever view was picked up by
the ultronoscope "eye" of the air
ball was automatically broadcast
on an accurate tuning channel to
this viewplate by the automatic
mechanism of the projectile. In
turn my control board broadcast
the signals which automatically
controlled the movements of the
ball.</p>
<p>Above and below the viewplate
were the pointers and the swinging
needles which indicated the
speed and angle of vertical movement,
the altimeter, the directional
compass, and the horizontal
speed and distance indicators.</p>
<p>At my left hand was the lever
by which I could set the "eye"
for penetrative, normal or varying
degrees of telescopic vision,
and at my right the universally
jointed stick (much like the "joy
stick" of the ancient airplanes)
with its speed control button on
the top, with which the ball was
directionally "pointed" and controlled.</p>
<p>The manipulation of these levers
I had found, with a very little
practice, most instinctive and
simple.</p>
<p>So, as I have said, I pointed my
projectile straight up and let it
shoot to the height of two miles.
Then I levelled it off, and shot it
at full speed (about 500 miles an
hour with no allowance for air
currents) in a general southwesterly
direction, while I eased my
controls until I brought in the
telescopic view of Lo-Tan. I centered
the picture of the city on
the crossed hairlines in the middle
of my viewpoint, and watched
its image grow.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">In</span> about fifteen minutes the
"string" of air balls was before
the city, and speaking in my
ultrophone I gave the order to
halt, while I swung the scope
control to the penetrative setting
and let my "eye" rove slowly
back and forth through the walls
of the city, hunting for a spot
from which I might get my
bearings. At last, after many
penetrations, I managed to bring
in a view of the head of the shaft
at the bottom of which I knew
the tunnels were located, and saw
that we were none too soon, for
all the corridors leading toward
this shaft were packed with Hans
waiting their turn to descend.</p>
<p>Slowly I let my "eye" retreat
down one of these corridors until
I "pulled it out" through the
outer wall of the city. There I
held the spot on the crossed hairlines
and ordered Number Two
Operator to my control board,
where I pointed out to her the exact
spot where I desired a breach
in the wall. Returning to her own
board, she withdrew her ball
from the "string," and focussing
on this spot in the wall, eased her
projectile into contact with it
and detonated.</p>
<p>The atomic force of the explosion
shattered a vast section of
the wall, and for the moment I
feared I had balked my own
game by not having provided a
less powerful projectile.</p>
<p>After some fumbling, however,
I was able to maneuver my ball
through a gap in the debris and
find the corridor I was seeking.
Down this corridor I sent it at
the speed of a Twentieth Century
bullet, (this is to say, about half
speed) to spare myself the sight
of the slaughter as it cut a swath
down the closely packed column
of the enemy. If there were any
it did not kill, I knew they would
be taken care of by the other balls
in the string which would follow.</p>
<p>I had to slow it up, however,
near the head of the shaft to take
my bearings; and a sea of evil
faces, contorted with livid terror,
looked at me from my viewplate.
But not even the terror
could conceal the hate in those
faces, and there arose in my
mind the picture of their long
centuries of ruthless cruelty to
my race, and the hopelessness of
changing the tigerish nature of
these Hans. So I steeled myself,
and drove the ball again and
again into that sea of faces, until
I had cleared the station platform
of any living enemy, and
sent the survivors crushing their
way madly along the corridors
away from it. There was blinding
flash or two on my viewplate
as some Han officer tried his ray
pistol on my projectile, but that
was all, except that he must have
disintegrated many of his fellows,
for our balls were sheathed
in inertron, and suffered no damage
themselves.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Cautioning</span> my unit to follow
carefully, I pushed my
control lever all the way forward
until my "eye" pointed down,
and there appeared on my viewplate
the smooth cylindrical interior
of the shaft, fading down
toward the base of the mountain,
and like a tiny speck, far, far
down, was the car, descending
with its last load.</p>
<p>I dropped my ball on it, battering
it down to the bottom
of the shaft, and with hammer-like
blows flattening the
wreckage, that I might
squeeze the ball out of the shaft
at the lower station.</p>
<p>It emerged into the great
vaulted excavation, capable of
holding a thousand or more persons,
from which the various escape
tunnels radiated. Down
these tunnels the last remnants
of a crowd of fugitives were disappearing,
while red-coated soldiers
guided the traffic and suppressed
disorder with the threat
of their spears, and the occasional
flourish of a ray pistol.</p>
<p>As I floated my ball out into
the middle of the artificial cavern
I could see them stagger
back in terror. Again the blinding
flashes of a few ray pistols,
and instantaneous borings of the
rays into the walls. The red coats
nearest the escape tunnels fled
down them in panic. Those whose
escape I blocked dropped their
weapons and shrank back
against the smooth, iridescent
green walls.</p>
<p>I marshalled the rest of my
string carefully into the cavern,
and counted the tunnel entrances,
slowly swinging my
"eye" around the semicircle of
them. There were 26 corridors
diverging to the north and west.
I decided to send three balls
down each, leave 12 in the cavern,
then detonate them all at
once.</p>
<p>Assigning my operators to
their corridors, I ordered intervals
of five miles between them,
and taking the lead down the first
corridor, I ordered "go."</p>
<p>Soon my ball overtook the
stream of fugitives, smashing
them down despite ray pistols
and even rockets that were shot
against it. On and on I drove it,
time and again battering it
through detachments of fleeing
Hans, while the distance register
on my board climbed to ten,
twenty, fifty miles.</p>
<p>Then I called a halt, and suspended
my previous orders. I
had had no idea that the Hans
had bored these tunnels for such
distances under the surface of
the ground as this. It would be
necessary to trace them to their
ends and locate their new underground
cities in which they expected
to establish themselves,
and in which many had established
themselves by now, no
doubt.</p>
<p>Fifty miles of air in these corridors,
I thought, ought to prove
a pretty good cushion against
the shock of detonation in the
cavern. So I ordered detonation
of the twelve balls we had left
behind. As I expected, there was
little effect from it so far out in
the tunnels.</p>
<p>But from our scopemen who
were covering the city from the
outside, I learned that the effects
of the explosion on the
mountain were terrific; far more
than I had dared to hope for.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> mountain itself burst
asunder in several spots,
throwing out thousands of tons
of earth and rock. One-half the
city itself tore loose and slid
downward, lost in the debris of
the avalanche of which it was a
part. The remainder, wrenched
and convulsed like a living thing
in agony, cracked, crumbled and
split, towers tumbling down and
great fissures appearing in its
walls. Its power plant and electro
machinery went out of commission.
Fifteen of its scout
ships hovering in the air directly
above, robbed of the power
broadcast and their repeller
beams disappearing, crashed
down into the ruins.</p>
<p>But out in the escape tunnels,
we continued our explorations,
now sure that no warnings could
be broadcast to the tunnel exits,
and mowed down contingent after
contingent of the hated yellow
men.</p>
<p>My register showed seventy-five
miles before I came to the
end of the tunnel, and drove my
ball out into a vast underground
city of great, brilliantly illuminated
corridors, some of them
hundreds of feet high and wide.
The architectural scheme was
one of lace-like structures of
curving lines and of indescribable
beauty.</p>
<p>Word had reached us now of
the destruction of the city itself,
so that no necessity existed for
destroying the escape tunnels.
In consequence, I ordered the
two operators, who were following
me, to send their balls out
into this underground city, seeking
the shaft which the Hans
were sure to have as a secret
exit to the surface of the earth
above.</p>
<p>But at this juncture events of
transcending importance interrupted
my plans for a thorough
exploration of these new subterranean
cities of the Hans. I detonated
my projectile at once and
ordered all of the operators to do
so, and to tune in instantly on
new ones. That we wrecked most
of these new cities I now know,
but of course at the time we
were in the dark as to how much
damage we caused, since our
viewplates naturally went dead
when we detonated our projectiles.</p>
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