Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/175

Rh and disfigured bodies of human beings, while around the fighting ships there was a continual shower of dust and pieces of rock, and clouds of smoke rolled over mountain and plain, almost obscuring everything from view. When the combats took place at some distance from the moon, the ships which had their antigravitation apparatus destroyed sank with swiftly increasing velocity either to the moon or the earth, to be dashed to pieces on the former, or vaporized in the atmosphere of the latter. To lose control over the vessels in these battles meant certain death and destruction for officers and crew; there was no way of escape.

The proportionate loss which the Sirians now suffered far exceeded that of the former battles. For every ship of the Anglo-Saxons which they destroyed they lost at least two of their own. Reinforcements were continually being sent up from the main body to satisfy the jaws of destruction, but still the cry of the admirals 11—2