"Jeff Grubb - StarCraft Libertys - Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grubb Jeff)

height and proportions, if a little lanky. His shoulders slope slightly from exhaustion or age. His
dirty-blond hair is spattered with lighter striations of gray and is swept back in a ponytail to hide an
obvious bald spot. His face is worn, a bit craggier than would be permitted for a traditional newscast, but
still recognizable. It remains a famous face, a comfortable face, a well-known face across human space,
even in these later war-torn days.

But it is his eyes that demand attention. They are deep-set, and even in the recording seem to reach out.
It is the eyes that create the illusion that the shining figure can truly see his audience, and see them to the
core of their beings. That has always been his talent, connecting with his audience even when he was
light-years away.

The figure takes another pull on his cancer stick, and his head is bathed in a holy nimbus of smoke. тАЬYou
may have heard the official reports of the fall of the Confederacy of Man and of the glorious rise of the
empire called the Terran Dominion. And you may have listened to the stories of the coming of the aliens,
the hordes of Zerg and the inhuman, ethereal Protoss. Of the battles of the Sara system and the fall of
Tarsonis itself. YouтАЩve heard the reports. As I said before, some of those reports had my name on them.
Parts of them are even true.тАЭ

In the darkness beyond the light someone shifts uneasily, unseen. The holographic projector lets out only
stray bits of light, rogue photons, but the audience remains for the moment a mystery. Somewhere behind
the darkness-shrouded audience there is the sound of dripping water.

тАЬYou read my words, then, and believed them. IтАЩm here to tell you, in those broadcasts, that most of
them were grade-A cow patties, massaged by the powers that be into more suitable and palatable forms.
Lies were told, both small and large, lies that have led us in part to our present sorry situation. A situation
that is not going to improve unless we start talking about what really happened. What happened on Chau
Sara and Mar Sara and Antiga Prime and Tarsonis itself. What happened to me and some friends of
mine, and some enemies as well.тАЭ

The figure pauses, drawing itself up to its full height. It looks around, its sightless eyes sweeping the
darkened room. It looks into the core of its audienceтАЩs soul.

тАЬIтАЩm Michael Daniel Liberty. IтАЩm a reporter. Call this my most important, perhaps final, report. Call this
my manifesto. Call it what you will. IтАЩm just here to tell you what really happened. IтАЩm here to set the
record straight. IтАЩm here to tell you the truth.тАЭ



CHAPTER 1
THE PRESS GANG

Before the war, things were different. Hell, back then, wewere just making our daily living, doing
our jobs, drawingour paychecks, and stabbing our fellow men and women inthe back. We had no
idea how bad things would get. Wewere fat and happy like maggots on a dead animal. Therewas
enough sporadic violenceтАФrebellions and revolutionsand balky colonial governmentsтАФto keep
the military going,but not enough to really threaten the lifestyles we had grownaccustomed to. We
were, in retrospect, fat and sassy.

And if a real war broke out, well, it was the militaryтАЩsworry. The marinesтАЩ worry. Not ours.