| abstract | - When Army soldiers are finishing up a day of maneuvers in the Arizona desert, they find themselves observing a meteor shower. Some of the meteors turn into violent creatures whom the Army attempts to destroy. It is quickly clear that the creatures are incredibly strong and immune to gunfire. The decision is made to report the ongoing incident. General Joyce contacts Spurs Jackson to investigate. Hank Roper is with Spurs when he recieves the general's call, commenting, "You won't have to look far, Spurs! All blazes is busting loose on Calumet Hill!" From the top of the hill, one of the Meteor Men try to drop a rock on the Jeep Spurs is driving. When the rock misses its target, Hank pulls his pistol. Spurs surmises the creatures must include some metal in them, as they were in the meteor shower. Also, that they came from a planet with extreme gravity, like Jupiter or another giant planet. This would explain their prodigious strength. General Joyce sends out planes to bomb the old Spanish fort the Meteor Men are occupying. The dropped bombs, missiles from the jets, and the strafing from the jets's 50-caliber machine gun strafing has no effect on the creatures. The General orders they use a newly developed gun on the Meteor Men. This manages to blast the creatures apart, though they re-form as smaller Rock Men. Spurs points out that the military has used all their weapons on the rock men, and they remain an immanent threat. He sees the powerful electro-magnets the military is using to move steel girders.He suggests trying the magnets on the Meteor Men. The soldiers use the tractors with the attached electo-magnets to chase down the rock creatures. This is effective, and soon the magnets have captured all the Meteor Men. Spurs explains since all the meteors he knew of had a high metallic content, he thought the Meteor Men must as well. The general thinks the Meteor Men, all in a pile and magnetically stuck to one another, should be melted down and made into girders for their new hanger, but says since they were technically invaders, it was up to the government to decide their fate.
|
