"Richard Hatch - Battlestar Galactica 01 - Armageddon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hatch Richard)

friend's features, and the fumarello clenched between his teeth.

"You're not supposed to smoke in yourтАж"

"Now!" Starbuck cried.

Apollo whipped the navi-hilt to the right at the precise moment that
Starbuck did the same. His Viper trembled as the two starfighters passed
within metrons of one another, belly to belly, their hot-plasma wake
jostling both ships.

"Take 'em down, Captain!" Apollo crowed.

"Yes, sir!" Starbuck roared.
 The Cylons had been out of range a micron earlier and not gaining
quickly enough. Now they were all unexpectedly face to face with a
Colonial Viper. The Warriors had a split-micron advantage. Apollo barely
paid any attention to the targeting system; he simply strafed the entire
starfield in front of him with turbolaser fire.

One Cylon laser blast passed so close to his canopy that it blackened a
small area. A torrent of turbolaser fire ripped across four of the Cylon
ships that had pursued Starbuck, and Apollo winced and shielded his eyes
from the violent explosions. His Viper did a small jump, rocked by the
shock wave.

The fifth ship was there, in his sights. He fired again, obliterating the
fighter, unable to avoid flying through the wreckage.

But the Cylon ship had gotten off a last volley before it exploded. To
Apollo's rear, Starbuck had taken out three Cylon fighters, and had only
one remaining, when that laser blastтАФthe one Apollo had been unable to
stopтАФpulverized Starbuck's apex pulsar, which flared and then went dark.

Apollo turned hard, but it was too late. As he craned his neck to see out
one side of his canopy, Starbuck's disabled starfighter skewed to one side,
his last turbolaser blast going far wide of the final Cylon attacker.

Then the two ships collided in space.

The Cylon fighter was destroyed, some of the wreckage clinging to
Starbuck's barely surviving Viper. Apollo continued his turn, watching in
horror, bile rising in his throat as Starbuck's ship began to glow and burn.
The momentum of the collision had thrust it down into the atmosphere of
Ochoa.

Gravity had a stranglehold on the crippled ship.

Blip!