Starquake.pdf

"It has been a long time since the Terrible One has had an excuse to fight," said Dented-Shield. "He was
afraid you would surrender."
"We'll give him a fight," Crust-Crawler promised. "Fire the antimatter mines!"
Engineer Power-Pack closed a switch and in a rippling roar, the road to the west exploded under the
treads of the Speckled Horde. Swifts and their warrior mounts were torn apart by the explosions and
tossed to the sides of the road. Those that had been along the edges of the road or between the mine
emplacements immediately left the road, only to be met by two more rippling roars as two more strings of
mines on either side of the road went up.
Attila felt a dull thump through the body of his Flow Slow as the antimatter mine went off. The Flow
Slow gave a deep rumble of pain, but continued on under the prickling from the creature above it. Attila
could sense the animal was hurt. But, except for a cracked plate underneath its armor cover, it was still
functional.
He looked out from his vantage point on top of the Flow Slow and surveyed the damage that had been
done to his army. Unlike the Flow Slow, the army had been badly hurt by the sneak attack. The warriors
had not panicked under the attack and were still moving forward toward the enemy, but they were not in
their usual group formations. They all had at least one eye fixed on their Emperor.
Attila pulled out his limber-swords and flashed them in a complex pattern about his body. The warriors
halted their disorganized rush and looked about for a greaturion. The greaturions, limber-swords
signaling, gathered the warriors that were around them, then signaled their leader. There were only six
groups now—half the warriors had been killed by the antimatter mines. Limber-swords flashing, Attila
lined up the groups behind the three Flow Slows and the attack continued.
"Let's get this beast moving!" Attila called, as he jabbed the point of the pricker between the cracks in
the Flow Slow's ar-
mor. He marched backward as the Flow Slow ponderously moved forward. He looked upward at the
large sphere hanging in the sky above him. He refused to be awed by it. The sphere would fall once the
fort fell and the power was turned off.
High above the battlefield Star-Counter watched the developing action and reported down to her friends
below.
"First two groups now within range of the fountain-tubes," she said. "Coordinates one-three and
one-six."
"One-three fired," said Metal-Bender, throwing small switches on his console. "One-six fired." Racks of
long, nearly vertical tubes fired in salvos and dozens and dozens of tiny heavy balls shot up into the sky to
fall like tiny avenging meteorites on the Speckled Horde. The crust vibrated with the cries of punctured
warriors and Swifts, but the attack moved on.
"Coordinates one-two. Coordinates one-seven. Coordinates two-three," Star-Counter reported from
above.
Down below, Attila took out his limber-swords and flashed another signal. The greaturions now
switched their advance to a zig-zag pattern. Many of the deadly falling balls missed their targets. Attila