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Snap and I, and one other volunteer, went. He and I held the shield; Snap handled the controls. Our exit port was on the lee side of the building from the hostile searchbeam. We got out unobserved and sailed upward; but soon a light from the ship caught us. And the projector bolts came up.... Our sortie only lasted a few minutes.
In the white glow of a searchbeam we climbed the crags, reached the broad upper ledge. Helmeted figures rushed at us, searched us for weapons, seized our helmet lights. The evil face of a giant Martian peered at me through the visors. Two other monstrous, towering figures seized Anita. We were shoved toward the port locks at the base of the ship's hull.
As we headed for the Grantline buildings, where still the rift in the wall had not quite broken, there came the final triumph. Miko had been aware of it, and knew he had lost. Grantline's searchlight leaped upward, swept the sky, caught its sought-for object a huge silver cylinder, bathed brightly in the white searchbeam glare. The police ship from Earth.
Most of us wore our Erentz suits, with helmets ready, though I am sure there was not a man of us but who prayed he might not have to go out. At many of the windows our weakest points to withstand the rays insulated fabric sheets were hung like curtains. The brigand ship slowly advanced. It was soon over the opposite rim of our little crater. Its searchbeam swung about the rim and down the valley.
The discovery, startling as it was, nevertheless, was far overshadowed by an imperative danger alarm from our main building. Brigands were outside on our ledge! Miko's searchbeam, sweeping the ledge a moment before, had carefully avoided revealing them.
And Grantline's searchbeam was going full power, clinging to the ship to dazzle them. Snap circled them. As we came back I dropped another bomb. Its silent puff seemed littered with flying fragments of the two projectors and the bodies of the men. We swiftly flew back to our base. It decided Grantline. For an hour past Snap and I had been urging our plan to use the gravity platforms.
I tried to assure myself that we could hold out that long. The brigand ship crossed the opposite crater rim. It dropped lower. It seemed poised over the crater valley, almost at our own level and less than two miles from us. Its searchbeam vanished. For a moment it hung, a sleek, cylindrical silver shape, gleaming in the Earthlight. Snap looked at me and murmured, "It's descending."
Whether Miko's instruments showed him how badly damaged our front wall was, we never knew. But I think that he realized. His searchbeam clung to it, and his zed-ray pried into our interiors. The brigand ship was active now. We were desperate; we used our telescope freely for observation. Miko's ore carts and mining apparatus were unloaded on the rocks.
Our men turned back. Before we could join them, the enemy ship down in the valley sent up a cautious searchbeam which located its returning men. Then the beam swung up to the ledge, landing upon us. We stood confused, blinded by the brilliant glare. Grantline stumbled against me. "Run, Gregg! They'll be firing at us." We dashed away. Our companions joined us, rushing back for the port.
I could see them now plainly, down at the crater base. A group of hand lights and small waving helio beam. And they were being answered from the ship! Potan was on the deck a babble of voices, above which his rose with roars of command. At one of the dome windows a brigand with a hand searchbeam was sending its answering light. And I saw that Potan was working over a deck telescope finder.
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