"Here's where we melt our way to the surface," said I.  'Our troops are right above," remarked Alda.

In a few moments we flashed up into a scene of total devastation.

Alda was thunderstruck.  "Our troops---gone! Look at those trees----those guns!"

Our wrecked and battered equipment was strewn every which way.

"Over there, under that gun!" I suddenly exclaimed.  "There's a leg!  I think it moved!"

In a moment we were rendering first aid.  It was one of Alda's escuteiras.

"Why----I remember the column had reached this spot," she started, "when out of the sky came a whole army of enemy spaceships which blazed away at us from all directions with a devastating fire.

"It was an amazing scene," she went on. "In a moment, all was desolation and ruin.  The Asternoids flashed away, towing unconscious and wounded troops on their own degravitizador belts!  The gun crashed on top of me, and I guess they didn't see me!"

"Our whole command wiped out!" I moaned.

"Oh, Nick!" said Alda shakily.  "What will the council do to us!"