The Engineers are under guard but are armed and break out. Kruse, the good shot from Venus, downs the three "Hounds"/guards outside the door of their apartment with one shot each. As the escapers run down the corridor, another corps approaches and fires:
"It seemed a miracle that there were no hits,..." (VI, p. 188)
It does. But:
"...but they were distant, moving targets." (ibid.)
OK.
Davenant has no time to be afraid. That sounds real. He punches and kicks a guy. We recognize this amount of physical detail in a fight from previous Anderson texts. Davenant does not see what is happening behind him as Kruse and the other two gunners shoot back. Since Davenant is our viewpoint character, we do not know what is happening in the rear either. One Engineer, Falkenhorst, takes a bullet in a shoulder but Devanant helps him along. More plausible now that there is one hit.
The garage entrance is unguarded. Why?
"In the confusion, it was unwatched." (p. 188)
OK. But, if the Hounds had better military organization, then they would be less confused. The Engineers are able to bar the door through which they would be pursued. This garage contains not land vehicles but small planetary rockets!
Protesting mechanics are told to stay back. We are not told what happens to them but then Kruse hopes that they:
"'...stay buffaloed.'" (ibid.)
What is "buffaloed"? Is there some discontinuity here?
That was an action scene, appreciated more for being analyzed.
Addendum: "Buffaloed" just means intimidated. OK.
2 comments:
One thing that actual fighting reveals is that some people are just much better at it than others.
The father of a friend of mine rolled into an enemy trench on a night-raid in the Korean War and went down it and killed around 20 men -- all Chinese soldiers and all armed and trying to fight back -- which a sharpened shovel. In less than ten minutes -- killing a man at every second step.
One of the generally unknown factors in recent military history is that training methods have improved enough to evoke this sort of action in many more troops.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that makes the action scene Paul described more, not less plausible. And helps explain why fully trained American and Israeli troops could inflict disproportionately larger casualties on their enemies than what they suffered in recent wars. Quality versus quantity.
Ad astra! Sean
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