Planet Wrecker

-76-

Captain Mune witnessed it from a nearby asteroid, the one designated as D. Grand Admiral Cassius watched from the Julius Caesar as he sat in his shell, examining holoimages. Supreme Commander Hawthorne saw it on the screens deep in the Joho Mountains.

Asteroid E rotated as huge jets flared. Seventeen minutes later, a flicker appeared in the giant, crater-sized exhaust-port. Then a vast plume erupted from the asteroid. It lengthened to over one hundred kilometers. With the thrust, Asteroid E so very slowly began to change its heading and velocity. Given enough time on this new vector, it would glide past the Earth and no longer impact with the third planet from the Sun.

Unfortunately, it was only one asteroid out of seventeen, and time was fast running out.