But for a moment, it seemed that Murphy had switched sides to favor the admiral. Only two of the weapons missed the archipelago completely. Nine of them hammered into ice mountains that were not the Elysian Fields. Both the high explosive and incendiary warheads produced negligible harm; ice was damnably hard, defeating the high explosive before it penetrated to the ship. And as for the incendiary charges, ice was, well, cold, and heating it to liquid took a lot of energy. The melted ice flowed down a few meters and refroze, making the lower levels of ice thicker.
Two of the missiles hit the Elysian Fields fore and aft. Like the others, these produced little effect. But—and this was where Murphy really stepped in for Beck—the last three hit virtually the same location in quick succession.
