"Steve Gordon - Ensectoid 01 - The Ensectoid Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Steve)

Moving very quickly, Mitterand grabbed Marshall and
started to throttle him. "Peace begets peace begets peace" he
said, squeezing Marshall's neck in a crushing grip. There was
a crack of broken bones and Marshall was tossed across the
bridge. General Peterson reached for his sidearm...
Just as another missile slammed into the bridge. The
Augustus was one of the most heavily armored ships in the
fleet, but it wasn't intended to operate without shields, and
without shields it couldn't survive more than a few direct
hits.
The missile blew up much of the forward decks,
incinerating the bridge crew instantly. The survivors in the
interior sections didn't last much longer either. Missiles
from a succeeding wave crashed into the engine section,
detonating the fuel supply and creating a miniature sun in
the space where the Augustus stood.
This scene was repeated throughout the entire fleet.
One after another League ships turned into fireballs, their
crews helpless to do anything to defend themselves or even
fleet. Within a few minutes, the rest of the fleet was
destroyed. So complete was the destruction that there were
almost no survivors. Of the 362 ships in the League fleet,
only 8 managed to escape the immediate battle. Three of those
were quickly hunted down and destroyed; one light cruiser
managed to go to ground and her crew joined the planetbound
resistance on Whenfor; one destroyer managed to link up with
members of the surviving fleet, a battle cruiser and a fast
attack destroyer became blockade runners until they were
hunted down and destroyed, and one battleship, whose story is
told elsewhere, escaped into deep space.
 But for all intents and purposes the bulk of the
League fleet ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, leaving
all the League worlds open to domination by the Insectoids.
There would be peace all right, but the peace of the
subjugated, the peace of the master and the slave; peace, but
on the Insectoids' terms, and humanity, what elements that
survived, would fare very, very poorly.


Chapter 1: Attack at Hunt's World

Two weeks earlier...

"It's utter foolishness!" said War Admiral Norman
North.
"Watch your tongue, Admiral!" countered Admiral Gubar
Peterson, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the
League of United Worlds. He was addressing a fellow admiral,
the legendary Norman North. There were precious few War (four
star) Admirals in the League, and although North's permanent