Drona

“ Tell me also, O Sanjaya, how did the battle take place there where Drona afflicted the Pandavas on the field? Drona is endued with great might, is the foremost of all persons, is accomplished in weapons, and is incapable of being defeated in battle. How could the Panchalas pierce that great bowman in the fight? Desirous of Dhananjaya’s victory, the Panchalas are inveterate foes of Drona. The mighty car-warrior Drona also is an inveterate foe of theirs. Thou art skilled in a narration, O Sanjaya! ”

“ When the enemy, turning back, partially lost their order, that vanquisher of foes, (viz., Drona) , invoking celestial weapons into existence, shone resplendent like the risen sun. Indeed, thy valiant sire, getting into the midst of the Pandavas, and having arrows for the rays that emanated from him, resembled the midday sun at whom none could gaze. Scorched by Drona, as if by the blazing sun, they became cheerless and deprived of their energy and senses. ”

“ Sanjaya said, ‘Then Drona caused a great carnage among the Panchalas, like the slaughter caused by Sakra himself in rage amongst the Danavas in the days of yore. The great car-warriors of the Pandava army, endued with might and energy, though slaughtered, O king, by Drona’s weapons, were not yet afraid of Drona in that battle. Indeed, O monarch, those mighty car-warriors, viz., the Panchalas and the Srinjayas, all rushed against Drona himself, for fighting with him. ”

“ And that mighty car-warrior Partha, possessed of great prowess and filled with joy upon reaching Drona’s car on his own, saluted the preceptor. And that slayer of hostile heroes, the mighty armed son of Kunti, then addressed Drona in an humble and sweet tone, saying, ‘Having completed our exile in the woods, we are now desirous of avenging our wrongs. Even invincible in battle, it doth not behove thee to be angry with us. O sinless one, I will not strike thee unless thou strikest me first. ”

“ O thou that art blest with length of days, heavy is the burthen that hath been placed upon thee by the Pandavas! Ascertaining by thy judgment as to whether thou art able to bear it or not, thou shouldst then engage in battle. The preceptor Drona is a master of superior weapons and accomplished (in battle) . Thou, however, hast been brought up in great luxury and art unused to battle. ”

“ Beholding Drona stationed on the field for the extermination of the Kshatriya race, the Rishis Viswamitra, and Jamadagni, and Bharadwaja, and Gautama, and Vasishtha, and Kasyapa, and Atri, and the Srikatas, the Prisnis, Garga, the Valkhilyas, the Marichis, the descendants of Bhrigu and Angiras, and diverse other sages of subtle forms quickly came thither, with the Bearer of sacrificial libations at their head, and, desirous of taking Drona unto the region of Brahman, addressed Drona, that ornament of battle, and said, “Thou art fighting unrighteously. The hour of thy death is come. ”

“ We succeeded, however, in resisting Drona at the head of the array at all points, having in that battle, disposed our vigorously contending car-divisions in counter-array. Held in check by a large number of warriors, and myself also having been well protected, Drona began to smite us with great activity, afflicting us with his whetted shafts. Thus afflicted by him, we could not then even gaze at his army, far less face it in battle. All of us then, addressing thy son by Subhadra, who was equal to thyself, O lord, in prowess said unto him, [O son, pierce this array of Drona!] ”

“ And Drona’s son caused a bloody river of impetuous current to flow there. The blood of elephants and steeds and combatants formed its water; tall standards its frogs; drums formed its large tortoises; umbrellas, its rows of swans, yak-tails in profusion, Kankas and vultures, its crocodiles; weapons its fishes; large elephants the stones and rocks on its banks; elephants and steeds, its sharks; cars, its unstable and broad banks; and banners, its beautiful rows of trees. Having shafts for its (smaller) fishes, that frightful river had lances and darts and swords for snakes ”

“ O thou devoted to virtue, I think there is nothing that can be more agreeable to me." Then Vidura, giving the necessary assurance to the king, went out to do what he was bid. And Drona endued with great wisdom, then measured out a piece of land that was void of trees and thickets and furnished with wells and springs. And upon the spot of land so measured out, Drona, that first of eloquent men, selecting a lunar day when the star ascendant was auspicious, offered up sacrifice unto the gods in the presence of the citizens assembled by proclamation to witness the same. ”

“ And the son of Pandu also cut in two fragments the large bow of the Brahmana. Then Drona, that grinder of Kshatriyas, took up another bow. That bull of Kuru’s race, Yudhishthira, cut off that bow also, with many keen shafts. Then Vasudeva, addressing Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, said, “Listen, O mighty-armed Yudhishthira, to what I say. Cease, O best of the Bharatas, to fight with Drona. Drona always striveth to seize thee in battle. I do not think it fit that thou shouldst fight with him. He who hath been created for Drona’s destruction will, without doubt, slay him. ”

“ Everything is in confusion for Drona's having only heard the neigh of (Arjuna's) steeds. Make ye such arrangements that these troops, come to a distant land in this hot season and in the midst of this mighty forest, may not fall into confusion and be subjugated by the foe. The Pandavas are always the special favourites of the preceptor. The selfish Pandavas have stationed Drona amongst us. Indeed, he betrayeth himself by his speech. Who would ever extol a person upon hearing the neigh only of his steeds? Horses always neigh, whether walking or standing, the winds blow at all times ”

“ Drona then, vexed with Yudhishthira, reproachingly said, "Stand thou apart. It is not for thee to strike the aim." Then Drona repeated the experiment with Duryodhana and the other sons of Dhritarashtra, one after another, as also with his other pupils, Bhima and the rest, including the princes that had come unto him from other lands. ”

“ And the slender-waisted Draupadi of every feature perfectly faultless, and whose body emitteth a fragrance like unto that of the blue lotus for two full miles around, is the sister of the strong-armed Dhrishtadyumna gifted with great prowess the (would be) slayer of Drona who was born with natural mail and sword and bow and arrows from the blazing fire, himself like unto the second Fire. ”

“ But he resolved to become an accomplished warrior. So he fashioned a clay image of Drona and worshipped it, and wielded the bow before it until his fame as an archer was noised abroad.
One day Drona went forth with the princes to hunt in the Bhil kingdom. Their dog ran through the woods, and it beheld the dark son of the rajah of the Bhils and barked at him. Desiring to display his skill, the young man shot seven arrows into the dog's mouth ere it could be closed, and, moaning and bleeding, the animal returned thus to the princes. ”

“ And Drona certified that there was none in the world who was equal to Arjuna in lightness of hand and general proficiency.
"'One day, Drona, addressing Arjuna before the assembled Kaurava princes, said, "There was a disciple of Agastya in the science of arms called Agnivesa. He was my preceptor and I, his disciple. By ascetic merit I obtained from him a weapon called Brahmasira which could never be futile and which was like unto thunder itself, capable of consuming the whole earth. That weapon, O Bharata, from what I have done, may now pass from disciple to disciple. ”

“ Here are Pandu, thy sire, and Pritha, thy mother, now united in heaven. Behold! also, Yudhishthira, the wise Bhishma, whose place is with the Vasus round my throne: Drona sits with Dharma, god of wisdom. Here are all the peerless warriors who fell in battle and have won heaven by their valour and their constancy. So may all mortals rise to eternal bliss, casting off their mortal bodies and entering by the shining door of the celestial city, by doing kindly deeds, by uttering gentle words, and by enduring all suffering with patience. The holy life is prepared for all the sons of men. ”

“ I then justified my position on those days by pleading the desire to be a drone—a life which, as I have sketched it out, seems to me to be wholly admirable. I wish to Heaven I could be in the least like those adorable people. Misbegotten industry stands in my way, and a deep-rooted, but equally misbegotten, idea that if I am very industrious I shall one day write a good story. Also, I have not the drone temperament necessary for dronage. I am not, in fact, any longer defending myself, but extolling other people. ”

“ No hope in either flight or fight; on the open ground, they would be run down in no time, and they had no weapons—even the notion of a weapon, as something apart from the fighting machine that carried it, was alien to their thinking.
The enemy vehicle rolled into full view and nosed slowly along the base of the mound; its motor whining questingly, only a few yards of gentle slope between it and the huddled pair. Its vision-ports glinted redly in the sunset glow, and Dworn could almost feel the raking of murderous eyes from behind them.... ”

“ Dworn knew that if his machine failed him in battle he would die. For men fought each other viciously, with no bond of brotherhood, in this—
World Of The Drone by Robert Abernathy
The beetle woke from a dreamless sleep, yawned, stretched cramped limbs and smiled to himself. In the west the sunset's last glow faded. Stars sprang out in the clear desert sky, dimmed only by the white moon that rose full and brilliant above the eastern horizon. ”

“ Tonight by the reckoning of his people, he was still a youth; but when tomorrow dawned, the testing of his wanderyear would be behind him, and he would be adult, a warrior of the beetle horde.
Sand spilled from the beetle's dull-black carapace as it surged from its hiding-place. It drifted, its motor only a murmur, along the shoulder of the dune. Dworn eyed his offending fuel gauge darkly; he would very much have liked to be on his way at top speed, toward the year's-end rendezvous of the horde under the shadow of the Barrier. ”

“ He noticed with fierce satisfaction that the scorpions were still doggedly firing....
The foremost drone came on, slanting down the sky until the gaping rocket-ports were plainly visible along its swept-back wings. But those sports still spat no flame. And it came on. It cleared the hilltop by no more than fifty feet, still diving faster than the speed of sound. It hit the desert slope beyond and ricocheted like a great projectile, bursting apart into fiery fragments that strewed themselves for a thousand yards across the rolling plateau. ”

“ He looked very fierce as he spoke, buzzing and twitching his feelers at every step.
"Exactly!" cried another Drone. "If I had a sting, I would lead the attack. As it is, I may be useful in guarding the comb. It is a great pity that Drones have no stings." You would have thought, to hear him speak, that if he had been given a sting like those of the Workers, [Pg 69] not all the Bees in the tree could keep him from fighting.
While the Drones were talking about war, some of the Workers sent to their Queen for advice. "Tell us," they said, "how to drive away the Kingbird. ”

“ Unlike the queen or the worker bees, the drone has no sting, and so you may let him crawl over your hand without fear of being hurt, even though he should become angry.
The life of the drone is a life of luxury and ease, for he does not work in the hive, neither does he gather any nectar or pollen. He is fed by the workers, and he also takes good care to help himself from the storehouses, whenever he thinks he would like a little more food. ”

“ Even as the shell hit the ground close to the ranked drone aircraft, motors had begun to pulse and snarl all along the farflung line. The desert began to spew forth attackers. A motley horde of metal things, they darted, stalked, and lumbered from their lurking-places, and as they advanced to the assault the firing commenced in earnest, became a staccato thunder that blanketed but failed to drown out the beginning alarm-wail of a huge mechanical voice from the fortress of the drones. ”

“ A fighter drone came roaring out one of the runaways gathering speed and beginning to lift. Dworn followed it with his eyes, feeling sweat spring out on his forehead, repeating under his breath without conscious awareness of what he was saying: "Stop him, stop him—"
Then the enemy craft spun round in the air, belching smoke, came apart and spilled along the runway for a hundred yards. A second, coming close behind it, plowed into the wreckage of its comrade, rolled over and over and became a furiously burning pyre. ”

“ He said slowly, "I see what you mean, It's only big enough for one-way traffic—and the drones evidently have some system of remote control, so that outbound expeditions aren't using it at the same time as returning ones...."
"So, if we wait till some of the wingless ones enter from this end, and hurry through the tunnel close behind them—" Qanya left the sentence uncompleted. Dworn knew she could imagine as well as he what would happen if they failed to time it right, and met a drone column coming from the opposite direction. ”

“ Its huge wheels narrowly missed a dead fighter slewed across the way. Its tail went up.
Naturally, the queen ships wouldn't be dependent on the nerve-center of the hive that had spawned them; for each of them carried within itself the full-grown robot brain, the nucleus of a new hive....
Shooting began again raggedly, the gunners caught unawares. Perhaps the great machine was hit—but to stop it would take more than one or two hits.
It reached and passed the end of the runway, its wheels barely clearing the ground as the paved strip ended. ”