The driver, a young lieutenant who seemed to be of predominantly Malayan and Polynesian blood, slid back the duraglass canopy for him to climb in, then snapped it into place when he had strapped himself into his seat.
“Can you handle the armament, sir?” he asked.
Von Schlichten nodded approvingly. Not a very flattering question, but the boy was right to make sure, before they started out.
“I’ve done it, once or twice,” he understated. “Let’s go; I want a look at what’s going on down at the equipment-park and the labor-camp, first.”
They lifted up, the driver turning the nose of the airjeep in the direction of the flames and explosions and magnesium-lights to the south and tapping his booster-button gently. The vehicle shot forward and came floating in over the scene of the fighting. The situation-map at the improvised headquarters had shown a mixture of pink and white pills in the 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, many of whom were trained to handle contragravity equipment, had managed to lift up a number of dump-trucks and powershovels and bulldozers, intending to use them as improvised airtanks, but Jarman’s combat-cars had gotten on the job promptly and all of these had been shot down and were lying in wreckage, mostly among the rows of parked mining-equipment.
From the labor-camp, a surprising volume of fire was being directed against the attack which had already started from the retaken equipment-park. This was just another evidence of the failure of Intelligence and the Constabulary—and consequently of himself—to anticipate the brewing 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, and now and then he could see the furnace-like backflash of a recoilless rifle or a bazooka, or the steady flicker of a machine-gun. Even if a few of these weapons had been brought from the barracks by retreating Tenth Infantry or Fifth Cavalry mutineers, there were still too many.
Hovering above the fighting, aloof from it, he saw six long troop-carriers land and disgorge Kragan Rifles who had been released by the liquidation of resistance at the native-troops barracks. A little later, two airtanks floated in, and then two more, going off contragravity and lumbering on treads to fire their 90 mm rifles. At the same time, 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 white pills out, girls, he thought. Don’t push them anywhere; put them back in the bottle. This year, there wouldn’t be any mining done at the North Pole; next year, the stockholders’ll be bitching about their dividend-checks. And a lot of new machine operators are going to have to be trained for next year’s mining. If there is any mining, next year.
He took up the hand-phone and called H.Q.
“Von Schlichten, what’s the wavelength of the officer in command at the equipment-park?”
A voice at the telecast station furnished it; he punched it out.
“Von Schlichten, right overhead. That you, Major Falkenberg? Nice going, major, how are your casualties?”
“Not too bad. Twenty or thirty Kragans and loyal Skilkans, and eight Terrans killed, about as many wounded.”
“Pretty good, considering what you’re running into. Get many of your Kragans mounted on those hipposaurs?”
“About a hundred, a lot of ’saurs got shot, while we were leading them out from the stables.”
“Well, I can see geeks streaming away from the labor-camp, out the south end, going in the direction of the river. Use what cavalry you have on them, and what contragravity you can spare. I’ll drop a few flares to show their position and direction.”
Anticipating him, the driver turned the airjeep and started toward the dry Hoork River. Von Schlichten nodded approval and told him to release flares when over the fugitives.
“Right,” Falkenberg replied. “I’ll get on it at once, general.”
“And start moving that mine-equipment up into the Company area. Some of it we can put into the air; the rest we can use to build barricades. None of it do we want the geeks getting hold of, and the equipment-park’s outside our practical perimeter. I’ll send people to help you move it.”
“No need to do that, sir; I have about a hundred and fifty loyal North Ullerans—foremen, technicians, overseers—who can handle it.”
“All right. Use your own judgment. Put the stuff back of the native-troops barracks, and between the power-plant and the Company office-buildings, and anywhere else you can.” The lieutenant nudged him and pushed a couple of buttons on the dashboard.
“Here go the flares, now.”
Immediately, a couple of airjeeps pounced in, to strafe the fleeing enemy. Somebody must have already been issuing orders on another wavelength; a number of Kragans, riding hipposaurs, were galloping into the light of the flares.
“Now, let’s have a look at the native barracks and the maintenance-yards,” he said. “And then, we’ll make a circuit around the Reservation, about
