"Gordon, Steve - Insectoid 03 - Death to the Insectoids!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Steve)

known as the Silencer!"
A buzzing went up in the audience. Obviously they had heard of
him.
A seven foot tall Insectoid wearing the traditional red shoulder
patch of a gladiator emerged into the arena. It carried a giant stick
with a curved blade on the end, a larger version of what the Silencer
now carried.
Normally, one of his top gladiators would take on several humans
at once. The weak, underfed, and poorly trained humans were seldom any
challenge. But Czzz, sensing that the Silencer would be more of a
challenge, had arranged for a one-on-one contest. She sat on
comfortable pillows, watching the battle that was about to begin. She
hoped the Silencer would provide some challenge.
The gladiator approached the Silencer. The Silencer didn't move,
glaring at the Insectoid. He hefted the weapon in his good arm, as if
feeling the weight.
The gladiator stopped several feet short of the Silencer. "Are
you ready to die, human?" it said through its translation device. "I
have killed 40 of your kind in the arena. I am only one short to move
up to fifth place in the gladiator rankings."
The Silencer said nothing, but continued to glare coldly. The
Insectoid, seeing it wasn't getting the reaction it expected, raised
its weapon and cautiously started to circle the Silencer. The Silencer
took a step as if to move in the opposite direction and to circle the
Insectoid. The Insectoid took another step forward, and-
no one in the arena could see it, because it was so fast, but the
Silencer doubled back, lunged and stabbed the Insectoid in the chitlins
deep with the blade before anyone, including the Insectoid, could even
blink.
The gladiator gave a hoarse scream as the Silencer tugged on the
stick, causing the curved blade to sink deeper into the gladiator,
pulling it down to the ground.
The green blood of the gladiator ran freely on the sands of the
arena.
The crowd roared in anger. But Czzz was ecstatic. This wasn't
the result she had been expecting; but it appeared this human would
have some staying power. She wondered how it would perform when facing
two gladiators....

"So as I see it, we've got to leave," said Croft. He looked
around at their little group--Red Sally, Sashay, the Clapper, and the
two soldiers they had picked up, Tanil and Yaney. It had been a week
now since they had escaped from their last encounter with the
Insectoids.
They were squeezed into one of the small renovated quarters
aboard the crashed cruiser, all looking about aimlessly, except for the
Clapper, who was watching something on the internal monitors. "The
Insectoids have been mass producing troops at an incredible rate. The
patrols here in the center of Sarney Sarittenden are simply too
numerous for us to operate in safety."