Armageddon!
He broke off suddenly; for at that moment there came to us a giant salvo of thunder from both east and west, a terrific shock of sound that rolled deeply through the air toward us from the two distant armadas advancing! An instant later there was a whistling sound over our own cities, and we knew that a great storm of heat-shells was plunging toward them. A few struck with wild bursting flares across our massed cities, and with their suddenly-released gigantic heat there appeared great craters of fusing, melting metal. The greater part of the shells, though, fell short, whirled down to earth to flash on the ground far below. The range was not yet closed, I knew; and so far our own great cities remained silent as death. Yarnall was watching now with hands clenched tightly, as the two circles from east and west came on. A moment later there rolled from them another great salvo, and another mass of shells rushed toward us; but, though most of these also fell short, a greater number than before flared and fused in melting, searing death upon our own massed cities!
I gazed anxiously at Yarnall, a strange dread taking possession of me for an instant as the tremendous armadas came on. Would he never give the order to fire? He was sitting still as a carved statue, his eyes upon the screens and his lips compressed; and in that moment there came to me a dim sense of all the terrific responsibility that weighed upon him, the leader of a third of earth's cities and peoples battling against the remainder of mankind. Silent he sat and still, while the great approaching armadas rushed nearer, their cities coming more and more distinctly into view in our far-seeing screens. In another moment, I knew, another thunderous broadside would be belching toward us. But, just as I looked for it to come, Yarnall spoke a single word and, as Connell's swift voice sent that word flying out to all our cities, as my own flashed it to all the batteries of our center-most city of New York, there was a hush of a split-second. And then, out from all our own hundred giant cities, there broke such a titanic thundering detonation as seemed to shake violently all the air about us! And, an instant later, we saw the heat-shells from our batteries falling in thousands upon the two advancing armadas, upon their rushing gigantic cities, and flaring into white-hot craters of fusing metal.
Before that terrific blow the two advancing masses seemed to stagger a little in mid-air, to hesitate for an instant; but then they advanced steadily onward and their own great batteries thundered an answer to our salvo. Then, as the two giant circles drew nearer to our own on either side, the whole world seemed swallowed again in one ceaseless thundering of sound. The giant batteries of all our great air-cities burst forth again, to send a storm of heat-shells rushing east and west upon our enemies! The air between us and the armadas nearing on either side must have been filled with shells in that moment; for we saw tremendous flares there in mid-air as shells of ours met some of theirs and burst. But few of them did that, most of them whirling through the air to burst and flare in all their awful destroying heat and brilliance upon the air-cities!
In that instant, as the batteries of all three gigantic armadas thundered, it seemed that numberless fountains of brilliant light and terrific heat were springing into being amid the metal towers of all the three masses of great air-cities! Great fountains of heat unthinkable, beneath which all the metal about them fused and melted instantly, and about which all life was scorched into annihilation! Yet this had taken but the first moment of the battle to accomplish; and now, as the two great circles of the European and Asiatic Federations swept nearer, I saw that two of the foremost of the great European cities, Paris and Lisbon, were staggering and reeling as they rushed forward with the rest! They had met an awful storm of striking heat-shells from our own cities; and though their great motors were deep in their mighty bases, though the alloy of their electrostatic towers could not be affected by heat-shells, yet the deadly hail of shells that had fallen upon them had penetrated apparently almost down to their great motors beneath!
I whirled to Yarnall, "Paris and Lisbon!" I cried: "They're falling behind the rest a little—they're hit hard!"
He nodded, eyes burning now: "All east batteries concentrate on Paris and Lisbon!" he ordered; and, as Connell's voice sent the order flying out to our eastern massed cities, their batteries were thundering with even greater fury.
But now all their shells were aimed toward the two crippled cities of Paris and Lisbon, and a hell of bursting shells were flaring across those two ill-fated giants of the air. It was as though a living wave, of brilliant heat and light from the bursting shells, were dancing like lightning across the two cities; and in that instant it must have burned from them all the life in their towers, even as they were striving to do with our own. The towers of each city became in that moment almost a single great surface of fusing, white-hot metal; its awfulness added to by the exploding of the stores of heat-shells and magazines beneath the terrific flares. Out beyond them and around them there swept other cities of the European armada to protect them. There came Madrid and London and Moscow, all their guns thundering answer; but now our own gunners were not to be denied of their prey. As our batteries sent repeated storms of shells upon the two doomed cities we saw Paris staggering, slipping to a lower level, hanging a moment there, and then whirling sidewise downward, down to the green earth far below! In a moment it had crashed, with a terrific rending and cracking of metal!
I heard a dull roar of cheers rolling across our city above and between the thunder of the guns, cheers that were redoubled a moment later as Lisbon too whirled downward to annihilation, a mere mass of fusing metal. But, even as the cheers sounded they were stilled, and Yarnall was uttering further orders to our batteries.
From the Asiatic Federation's circle, a great smothering fire of shells had been falling in those moments upon the westernmost of our own cities, upon Omaha. Its guns were still thundering in savage answer; but, battery by battery, they were going silent as there fell upon them the concentrated fire of the whole advancing Asiatic Federation cities, the great guns of Peking thundering at the center of the rest. Then Omaha, too, had slipped and staggered and was whirling down to earth in fusing destruction, its motors reached by the bursting shells at last!