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

About 10% of the fleet. It was almost an insult for a War
Admiral to be commanding such a small force. Well, at least
he still had the Glory, his flagship, and a fair mix of top
of the line and current ships. It would have to do. Peterson
was looking at his face to see his reaction, but North forced
himself to give a blank expression. "Very well, sir. If
you'll excuse me?"

The Glory was an old Command Carrier, one of only four
such ships still in existence. But old shouldn't be confused
with feeble; although over 300 years old, every part of the
Glory except her armor and her bulkheads had been stripped
out and replaced several times with upgrades and new
components. The Glory was one of those very rare and
expensive combinations of a battleship and a fleet carrier.
On the bottom the ship was pure carrier: it had two launching
and landing bays capable of holding six squadrons of fighters
plus a wide variety of support and transport craft. The Glory
currently carried a complement of five squadrons of old but
proven assault Wildcats and one squadron of even older
Defender heavy bombers. Although both classes of fighters had
been in service for over 100 years, the Glory carried a
mixture of type 145-D and 150-B Wildcats and type 78-J
Defenders, among the most modern versions of these fighters
in the fleet.
The top of the Glory was pure battleship, featuring three
sets of massive 34 inch laser cannon turrets, side mounted
missile launchers, a 22 inch turret in the rear, and a number
of small caliber anti-fighter armament. While no longer state
of the art compared with the most modern battleships, the
Glory could go toe to toe against nearly any ship in the
fleet except the most modern superbattleships and
dreadnaughts.
In short, the Glory had the teeth of a battleship and the
carrying capacity of a carrier. That combination, however,
made the Command Carrier line tremendously expensive, which
explains why they were discontinued after only eight models,
in favor of regular carriers and battleships.
North's shuttle, accompanied by his standard fighter escort,
landed in the forward landing bay. His executive officers,
Captain Roger Dulin, skipper of the Glory, and Commander
Stacy Wren, his first officer, were waiting for him in his
ready room.
"Ridiculous!" were Dulin's first words.
"Obviously a trap," said Wren. "Why else would they
want to meet at Vitalics?"
"Admiral Peterson said that they considered that
neutral territory," said North.
"And it's just a coincidence they chose a meeting place
where electromagnetic interference would prevent any