Uller Uprising

nywhere Put Them

d a half since the mutiny at the native-troops barracks had broken out. The Company reservation was still ablaze with lights, and over the roof of the hospital and dispensary and test-lab he could see the

and Polynesian blood, slid back the duraglass canopy for him to climb i

the armament,

ery flattering question, but the boy was r

Let's go; I want a look at what's going on down

mine-equipment park; something was going to have to be done about the lag in correcting it, for the area was entirely in the hands of loyal Company troops, and the mob of laborers and mutinous soldiers had been pushed back into the temporary camp where the workers had been gathered to await transportation to the Arctic. As he feared, the rioting workers,

storm. There was, of course, practically no chance of keeping Ullerans from having native weapons, swords, knives, even bows and air-rifles, and a certain number of Volund-made trade-quality automatic pistols could be expected, but most of the fire was coming from military rifles,

combat-cars swooped in, banging away with their lighter auto-cannon and launching rockets. The titanium prefab-huts, set up to house the laborers and intended to be taken north with them for their stay on the polar desert, were simply wiped away. Among the wreckage, resistance was being blown out like the lights of a candelabrum. Push the whit

e hand-phone

avelength of the officer in c

st station furnished

at you, Major Falkenberg? Nice goin

ns and loyal Skilkans, and eight Ter

re running into. Get many of your K

rs got shot, while we were lead

in the direction of the river. Use what cavalry you have on them, and what contrag

d toward the dry Hoork River. Von Schlichten nodded approv

eplied. "I'll get on

air; the rest we can use to build barricades. None of it do we want the geeks getting hold of,

ndred and fifty loyal North Ullerans-foreme

, and between the power-plant and the Company office-buildings, and anywhere else y

the fla

omebody must have already been issuing orders on another wavelength; a numbe

s," he said. "And then, we'll make a circuit around the Reservation, ab

he said. "I can't understand why he hasn't jumped us, already. I kn

Allah make us truly thankful, amen. It's something no commander should depend on, but be glad when it happens. If Firkked had had a couple of regiments on hand outs

arracks, even those of the Rifles, were burning; the red-and-yellow danger-lights around the power-plant and the water-works and the explosives magazines were still on. Most of the floodlights

except for a dim light, here and there, where the occupants of some farmhouse had been awakened by the noise of battle. The airjeep dropped lowe

he caught a new sound-the flowing, riverl

for it, at about a thousand feet. When we

ered his voice to a whisper. "That'

on Schlichten thought alo

y enough for a

he bridges to this side of the river, they'd be winded. They'd stop for a blow, and then they'd settle down to steady slogg

r. He picked up the phone and punched

rom Skilk, two miles east of the Reservation. Get some combat contragravity over here, at once. We'll light them up for you. And tell

-soled feet on the dirt road, the clink and rattle of slu

said, "Here go

foot on the machine-gun pedal and his fingers on the rocket buttons. The highway below was jammed with geeks, and they were all stopped dead and staring upward, as though hypnotized by the lights. A second later, they had recovered and were shooti

ke another pass at t

in, von Schlichten plowed them with rockets and harrowed them with his guns. Some of the Skilkans were trying to get over the high fences on either side of the road-really stockades of petrified

ded, lifting his foot from the gun-pedal. "Are you

ormality of a very junior officer chewing out a very senior one. "I am, however, afraid to risk

it. "I'm too old to play cowboy, like this," he s

-flashes of exploding shells and rockets; the air above the road was sparkling with gu

ant lights of Skilk. The map had been taken up from the floor, and a big terrain-board had been brought in from the Chief Engineer's office and set up in its place. In front of the screen, Paula Quinton, Barney Mordkovitz, Colonel Cheng-Li, and, conspicuously silent, Jules Keaveney sat drinking coffee and munching sa

letely in Company hands. The ruins of the native-troops barracks were still burning, and there was a twinkle of orange-red here and there among the ruins of the labor-camp. Much of the equipment for the pola

d southwest of Skilk, followed by another and another. Instantly, von Schlichten glanced up at

ilar to the one he had, himself, witnessed through his armament-sight. The Skilkan regulars had been marching in formation, some on the road and some along parallel lanes and paths. They had the look of trained and disciplined troops, but they had made the same mistake as the rabble that had been shot up

ding the combat-cars, that had already started to form the second wave of the attack on the mob to the north. Other f

running away, individually and by squads; at first, it looked like a panic, but he could see officers signaling to the larger groups of fugitives to open out, apparently directing the flight. By this time, there were ten or twelve combat-cars an

uth full of sandwich, was saying. "Heave it to them; y

know. Her military education was progress

rdkovitz replied. "A lot of them didn't stay bunched this time,

the scene of the attack. The screen tuned to the pickup on the airjeep went dead; in the big screen, there was a twinkling of falling

om the big switchboard. "Lieutenant Kalanang's jeep was hit; Lie

gun had been; in the small screen, there was a stubbled grain-field, pocked with craters, and the bodies of fift

out, by this time, around the point of a

anaries and forage-stacks on some of these farms. They'll burn for half an h

," Colonel Cheng-Li said. "He has at least six, possibly te

idea they're all at or around the Palace. Firkked knows about how much con

n said. "And that reminds me-how much contragravity could Firkked scrape together,

some of his courtiers around in, four airjeeps armed with a pair of 15-mm machine-guns apiece, and two big lorries. There are possibly two hundred vehicles of all types in Skilk and

tell him to consult with Colonel Jarman. Tell him to get those geeks Leavitt has penned in the repair-dock at the airport and use them to dig slit-trenches and fill sandbags and so on. He can use Kragan limited-duty wounded to guard them.... Mr. Keaveney, you'll begin setting up something in the way of