The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine (Max Mondo)-Jeff Wayne

The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine (Max Mondo) - Jeff Wayne The hammering from the pit And the pounding of guns grew louder My fear rose at the sound of someone creeping into the house Then I saw it was a young artilleryman Weary, streaked with blood and dirt Anyone here? Come in, here, drink this Thank you What's happened? They wiped us out, hundreds dead, maybe thousands The Heat Ray The Martians, they were inside the hoods of machines They'd made massive metal things on legs Giant machines that walked, they attacked us They wiped us out Machines? Fight machines Picking up men and bashing 'em against trees Just hunks of metal But they knew exactly what they were doing Mmm, there was another cylinder came last night Yes, it looked bound for London London, Carrie, I hadn't dreamed there could be danger to Carrie And her father, so many miles away I must go to London at once And me, got to report to Headquarters If there's anything left of it At Byfleet, we came upon an Inn but it was deserted Is everybody dead? Not everybody, look, six cannons with gunners standing by It's bows and arrows against the lightning They haven''t seen the Heat Ray yet We hurried along the road to Weybridge Suddenly, there was a heavy explosion The ground heaved, windows shattered And gusts of smoke erupted into the air Look, there they are, wat did I tell you Quickly, one after the other Four of the fighting machines appeared Monstrous tripods, higher than the tallest steeple Striding over the pine trees and smashing them Walking engines of glittering metal Each carried a huge funnel and I realized with horror That I'd seen this awful thing before A fifth machine appeared on the far bank It raised itself to full height Flourished the funnel high in the air And the ghostly, terrible Heat Ray struck the town As it struck, all five fighting machines exulted Emitting deafening howls which roared like thunder Ulla, Ulla The six guns we had seen now fired simultaneously Decapitating a fighting machine The Martian inside the hood was slain Splashed to the four winds, and the body, nothing now But an intricate device of metal, went whirling to destruction As the other Monsters advanced, people ran away blindly The artilleryman among them But I jumped into the water and hid until forced up to breathe Now the guns spoke again But this time the Heat Ray sent them to oblivion Ulla With a white flash, the Heat Ray swept across the river Scalded, half blinded and agonized I staggered through leaping, hissing water towards the shore I fell helplessly, in full sight of the Martians, expecting nothing but death The foot of a fighting machine came down close to my head Then lifted again as the four Martians carried away the debris Of their fallen comrade and I realized that by a miracle I had escaped Ulla, Ulla, Ulla