"John G. Hemry - Stark's War 3 - Stark's Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hemry John G)

hiding in the dark in wait for fat, easy targets like the supply shuttles.

Alarms sounded as sensor arrays on the warships tracked objects rising from the MoonтАЩs
surface toward the convoy. The armed shuttles of StarkтАЩs tiny Navy lunged at the convoy, even
as the warship escorts moved to intercept the threat. New stars winked into life against the
blackness, as fire and counterfire blazed between the combatants.

Around Stark, the watchstanders in the command center in the American headquarters
complex on the lunar surface worked quietly and efficiently, organizing and feeding
information to the huge displays dominating the room. Colored symbols crawled across those
displays like geometric insects; red for enemy, blue for friendly. Threat symbology,
representing weapons, darted around the larger shapes, which marked warships and shuttles,
the spacecraft seeming slow and cumbersome compared with the flight of their weapons. Stark
had to remind himself that those spacecraft could move at speeds measured in miles per
second, a concept almost too alien for a ground soldier to grasp.

тАЬCommander Stark?тАЭ One of the watchstanders highlighted text scrolling in one corner of
the big headquarters display. тАЬWeтАЩre picking up communications from the warships on the
common merchant frequency.тАЭ

Stark squinted to read the words. тАЬCharlie Foxtrot Bravo Two? WhatтАЩs that mean?тАЭ

тАЬItтАЩs from the Convoy Tactical Signals Code, sir. I guess they havenтАЩt changed it. The signal
means тАШAll convoy units remain in formation.тАЩ The warships have repeated the message several
times.тАЭ

Stark looked back at the display, where vectors for the supply shuttles continued to shoot
off in various directions. тАЬIt doesnтАЩt look like the convoy is paying much attention.тАЭ

тАЬNo, sir. The warships sound kinda upset.тАЭ

тАЬAccording to Chief Wiseman, they shouldnтАЩt have expected anything else. ItтАЩs exactly what
she told us would happen.тАЭ

Weapons burst, creating expanding clusters of heat and debris, while the dueling warships
tossed out countermeasures designed to fool radar, infrared, and any other means of targeting
them. StarkтАЩs search systems lost contact with the fleeing supply shuttles, their vectors fading
into estimated tracks as a sector of the forever-night over the Moon grew temporarily opaque
to ground-based sensors.

Despite their overwhelming advantage in firepower, the escorting warships hung back,
forming a defensive shield for the now-scattered convoy, content to hurl volleys whenever one
of StarkтАЩs armed shuttles swung toward them.

тАЬChief Wiseman,тАЭ Stark called his fleet commander. In response to his communication, a
window automatically opened in one corner of StarkтАЩs display, showing the face of Chief Petty
Officer Wiseman on the command deck of her armed shuttle. тАЬWhatтАЩre those warships doing?тАЭ

тАЬExactly what I expected them to do. TheyтАЩre protecting those supply shuttles. The
warships donтАЩt know exactly where all the convoy shuttles are anymore, but theyтАЩre trying to