The thin, acrid atmosphere of Mars burned into his nose and his lungs labored.
Unseeingly, he swung his sledge in swathlike circles. Shrieking like a wild Indian, he felt it smash and slam into the bodies of his metallic opponents.
Then the world was blotted out by a resounding roar, a Niagara of sound that beat in waves against one's body.
That was the rocket leaving.
"Hugh!" he yelled insanely. "Hugh, we did it!"
The attack had fallen away and he stood unsteadily on his feet, panting, stiff from punishment, but filled with exultation.
They had won. He and Hugh had sent the message. Earth would be warned and Mars would lose its hope of conquering a new and younger world. Whatever dreams of conquest this old red planet may have nurtured would never come to be.
He put his hands up and ripped the helmet from his head, flinging it on the ground.
The metallic machines were ringed around him, motionless, almost as if they were looking at him. Almost as if they were waiting for his next move.
Wildly he whooped at them. "Start something, damn you! Just start something!"