READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
John Carter and Tarzan joined Tars Tarkas in leading the way
into the dark catacombs of the lower fortress. Somewhere
behind came Churg and the other apes bearing La in her
golden litter. And the hordes of mounted green and red men
followed endlessly forward and ever upward into the Great
Escarpment. Among them somewhere, lost in the multitude,
was Var Koros, who alone appreciated the full significance of
what was happening.
So it was that while the aerial navies of Zodanga and
Jahar, of U-Gor, Tjanath, Amhor and Phundahl attacked
undefended cities of the Heliumitic Empire in the outer
world, and while the main allied fleets and armies of the
Warlord lay locked in close, mighty battle with the fleets and
armies of the Holy Alliance at Tarnath, a great, secret army
of ferocious warriors was unleashed into the interior of the
Great Escarpment, led by John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom,
by Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and by Tarzan of the Apes,
who needed no false identity of a Tharos Pthan to establish
him, in his own right, as the most formidable warrior in the
long history of the dying planet.
Shoulder to shoulder, Tarzan fought with John Carter
and the mighty Thark, climbing together with them over the
dead bodies of Thern, First Born warriors or Tarnathians, to
cut a path through all opposition. Contingents of their army
swiftly occupied adjoining passages and reduced each section
garrison as it was encountered. The control of the subterranean
lock was also found, and the dam was released in the
lower caverns of Iss, thus lowering the waters and saving
most of the rear guard from certain death.
The invaders had hardly occupied half of the mighty
citadel before most of its defenders changed their allegiance
to the Warlord and to him whom they chose to accept as the
genuine Tharos Pthan. As this circumstance developed, its
effects were felt among the armies of the Heliumitic Alliance
fighting beyond the rim of the Valley, for the mighty guns of
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