Possibly the most engrossing science - fiction taradiddle of all meter has run up online , featuring temerarious zephyr pilots hurtle acidulous hummer against the implacable Slavs and their disintegrate flame . It ’s the futurist class of 1938 , in “ loup-garou Of War . ”
Published in the February 1931 issue of Astounding Stories , “ Werewolves Of warfare ” by D.W. Hall takes place seven eld in the future tense , after the Slavs have overrun Europe and are now lay waste to the United States . The last scrappy defenders of America are just hardly holding off the Slavs at California , and doing battle in the hazardous no - man ’s land of Nevada . D.W. Hall gives us the variety of publish you just do n’t see nowadays . Witness :
Trapped again !
But this sentence , Lance swore , they ’d not get away without pay dearly for it !
Under the mesh topology of his throttle - mask the lean lines of his jaw go taut . Tense , steely finger’s breadth flipped to the knobbed ascendancy instrument ; the gleam individual - seater spotter sheet catapult in a screaming somerset . Lance ’s ever - wary sixth sensory faculty told him the tongue of disintegrating flame had licked the plane ’s protected stomach , and for the fact that it was protect he thanked again his stupendous fortune . He pull savagely at the squat control stick ; the four Rahl - Diesels unleashed a torrent of tycoon ; and the slim scout rose like a comet , and thrust , the altitude dial ’s spooky finger promulgate , to ten thousand metrical unit . Lance comfort off the business leader , slack up slightly , and glanced below .
So the Slavs have amazing super - artillery , the disintegrate flame , which takes out American airplanes by the dozen and whose secret baffle America ’s scientist . Only the expansive squadron drawing card , Lance , is capable to strike back at the Slavs using his acidic bullet , which give off “ acid blanched smoke ” after they come to . This is a “ scientific war , ” as Lance ’s commanding officer notes . But there ’s a double-dealer amongst Lance ’s unit , the Werewolves Of War , and nothing can discontinue the inexorable encroachment of the villainous Slavs :
loup-garou of War , the batch of airplane he belonged to had been christened , and it was a richly deserve claim . In front of the front they contend , detail to desperate , harrying missions , losing an norm of ten men a day . The trial by ordeal of gas and ardor and acid bullet added five years to a man ’s brow overnight - if he served with the Werewolves of War .
Lance was only twenty - four , but his hair was splotched with dead gray strands ; his oculus were tough and aweary ; his facial expression lined with new wrinkles . Ah , well , it was war - and a losing warfare , he had to include , that they fought . If a miracle did n’t come , America would crumble even as old Europe had , before the overpowering Slavish troops .
Even now , as Lance knew through various hearsay , the Slavs were mass for a idealistic attack . And with what could America hold them back ?
The social unit also admit a funny Cockney mechanic , a refugee from a defeated England . My favorite part is when the narration mentions that Lance “ Immelmanned up . ” That ’s going to be my new stop phrase : “ Immelman up , why do n’t you ? ” spear suspects his fellow officer , Praed , is a coward and a undercover agent — but he trivial earn the shocking truth about Praed ’s identity , and how it relates to an awesome raw secret superintendent - artillery … the Flying Torpedo ! But to win , they must destroy San Francisco utterly !
The whole narration just went online recently , as part of Project Gutenberg — and in fact , that whole takings of Astounding Stories is on the web site , for your amazement and delight . Also included in the issue : “ Tentacles From Below ! ” by Anthony Gilmore , “ Phalanxes Of Atlans ” by F.V.W. Mason , and “ The Pirate Planet ” ( not to be confused with the Doctor Who story ) by Charles W. Diffin . Enjoy ! [ Project GutenbergviaFree Speculative Fiction Online ]
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