"Bester, Alfred - Biped Reegan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bester Alfred)

Without hesitation, our troops plunged into the deep ditches and swam toward the
far side. Quickly, chains of living troops were made, and from these chains,
living bridges were built. Across these bridges swarmed your Maternity's loyal
legions.
THE second water trap proved to be a trap indeed. Barely had we reached it when
it flamed into the air to prodigious heights . . . a curtain of thick fire.
Commander-lambda telecast the battle-word: "Forward" and so our troops moved. By
the hundreds of thousands they threw themselves into the pool of flame, glorious
sacrifices for your Imperial Maternity. Within a short space the fires were
smothered by the countless numbers of blackened, charred bodies. The troops
reached the citadel walls.
They clambered up like a great rising black wave, directly in the face of the
thundering torches which the bipeds wielded at the top. And though they fell
backwards in a hail of infinite numbers, the commander knew we must break
through this time or else fail forever.
Then, faintly, we received vibrations from the red armies that they had sighted
the citadel. Quick to seize on opportunities, Commander-lambda ordered the red
armies to advance with all possible speed and show themselves as soon as
possible to the bipeds. Our own troops he ordered to concentrate at the south
side.
As Commander-lambda planned, so it took place. Solid waves of our troops pressed
at the south wall. The bipeds were forced to flame their torches incessantly
without fail. Yet one looked up for an instant and saw the flashing approach of
the red armies. He gasped and called to the biped next to him. Together they
stared for less than a moment, yet in that time hundreds of our troops had
passed the crest of the battlements.
They died, Imperial Maternity, but in the moment when the bipeds were flaming
them down along the wall-top, still other troops poured over the crest, and yet
more and more until we had taken foothold at the parapet. We had forced a breach
in the wall and from that moment, victory was ours.
Steadily we forced the bipeds back from the walls, and our billions swarmed
through the citadel, routing them out of their corners and chambers. They fought
well, but they fell. All of them.
It was when the bipeds were falling quickly and filling the citadel with their
shrieks that Reegan and Dinah rushed to the lower courtyard. Spy-zeta was still
there, reporting to us.
"It's all up, Wes!" Ivar cried. "We're finished. Get into the rocket ship ...you
and Dinah. Get to hell out of here!"
"Why us?" Reegan demanded. "Why not you and Chung? It's your ship..."
"Chung is dead!" Ivar panted. "Otis is up there, screaming on the wall. Do what
I say, will you? Get in! I've shown you how to operate her. Rocket to Hawaii....
To Mars.... Anywhere, To Mars.... Anywhere you like, only get only get away,
Adam and Eve . . ."
The red-haired Ivar snatched up a torch, slung it over his shoulder and began
flaming us back.
"For God's sake!" he cried. "Will you go?"
They leaped into the mechanism and the heavy portal clanged shut. For a time
there was silence. Then suddenly the earth and air was filled with flame and
roaring, and the very walls of the bipeds' citadel cracked and crushed down over
us.