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"...the space defense initiative drove the USSR bankrupt, and it originated at my house in Tarzana."
- Larry Niven

Vapor Cloud  
  Corrosive gas destroys ships.  

Above them in the sky the cruiser appeared, sweeping down over the Adharan. From the cruiser a blue^white cloud shot, drilled out by pressure jets directly at the black Adharan ship. The cloud reached the parked freighter. It billowed around it, fusing into it.

The surface of the Adharan hull glowed briefly. It began to fall in, eaten away. Corroded. The Terran cruiser swept past, completing its run. It disappeared into the sky.

' From the Adharan ship figures were emerging, jumping out onto the ground. The figures sprang in all directions, long-legged, leaping wildly around. Most of the figures hopped excitedly up onto their ship, dragging hoses and equipment, working frantically, disappearing into the vapor cloud.

"They're spraying."

More Adharans appeared, leaping frantically up and down, onto their ship, onto the ground, some this way, others in no particular direction at all.

"Like when you step on an ant hill," Barnes murmured.

The hull of the Adharan ship was covered with clinging Adharans, spraying desperately, trying to halt the corrosive action of the vapor.

Technovelgy from The Cosmic Poachers, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Imagination in 1953
Additional resources -

Compare to corrosite gas from The Machine That Thought (1939) by William Callahan.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Cosmic Poachers
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Cosmic Poachers
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

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