"Gordon, Steve - Insectoid 02 - Escape from the Insectoids" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Steve)

patrols to head out in pairs in every direction ahead of them to look for
signs of habitable planets.
"Well, this has been another swell patrol," said Command Captain Idaho
Took. He checked the scanner to compute, once again, the range back to the
Glory. Another routine patrol, a few planetless stars, and billions of
gallons of empty space.
"Would you rather have run into an Insectoid patrol?" said his wingman,
Lieutenant Kato Obe.
"A small one, maybe," said Took. "At least it would've given us something
to do." Took certainly wasn't itching for a full-scale Insectoid attack,
but Obe shared his frustration. It had been almost two weeks of quiet now,
and it had been too quiet. Obe checked his scanner, saw three blips,
heading in the same direction as they were, back to the Glory, but coming
from different directions.
"Getting something on scanner," said Obe.
"Must be Marsten's patrol," said Took. He switched to general comm, "Mars,
is that you?"
"That must be Took," came the voice on the other end.
"Uh, Mars, this is Obe, how many ships do you have in your patrol?" Obe
asked.
"Two," came Marsten's voice. "You know that."
"Then why do I have a vector on three ships coming in from your
direction?"
Took checked the scanner, saw he was right. He did a focused scan: the
three ships looked like Wildcats, but only two of them were 145-D's; the
third ship resembled a Wildcat, but had a different design; definitely not
one of theirs.
Took set an intercept vector. "Unidentified starfighter, this is War
Captain Took of the Command Carrier Glory. Identify yourself."
They got silence for a response. Took checked the scanner. The fighter had
already shot past Marsten and his wingman, and now only Took and Obe stood
between it and the Glory.
"Do you suppose it could be one of those Directorate guys from the Amory
Til? They could be on a different frequency?" said Obe.
"Different from general broadband?" said Took. "Not likely. And take a
close scan of that ship. It looks like someone took it apart and put it
together with a totally different set of pieces--the thing looks like an
antique that's been mish-mashed together from ten different sets of
fighter parts."
"If it's such an antique, why is it almost outflying us?" said Obe.
At full speed they caught up with the ship just short of the fleet. It was
as old and battered as the scan had indicated; and it was heading straight
for the Glory.
Took activated his targeting scanner. "Unidentified ship, identify
yourself!" He got no answer. Took let go a volley just short of the
unknown fighter, who banked to the right immediately as the bolt launched,
and turned around to arc towards Took. Took, tense, repeated, "This is
your last warning! Identify yourself!" Suddenly there was a scratching
sound on his comm, as if a long disused circuit had been activated or
repaired. "Do not fire," said a flat voice. "I am an allied force."