"J. Robert King - Invasion Cycle 01 - Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Robert J)

groan of failing metal was punctuated by explosions from
severed engines. In tandem, the cruisers' afts sputtered
sparks and soot. They tipped, crashing down atop waiting
craft below. In a storm of fire and smoke, five ships
impacted the flowstone ground. The first power core went
critical. It sent a column of black force a thousand feet into
the sky and fifty feet into the ground. Hunks of flowstone
pelted a second craft. Its power core cracked, and then a
third. More ships went down there before the closed portal.
"Nice work for the first ten minutes of the invasion!"
Gerrard shouted to his crew. "A ruined portal and a dozen
ships down!"
"And ten thousand ships trapped on this side with us,"
Sisay warned. "We've got company."
Though cruisers and plague ships were too slow to
pursue Weatherlight, the dragon engines were not. To the
untrained eye, they seemed merely dragons. The sinuous
constructs were as agile, as sleek, as intelligent as their
natural kin. Beneath scales of enameled titanium were
meshes so fine as to form skin and muscles. The beasts
wheeled about and swarmed after Weatherlight. They
opened jaws lined with true scimitars and breathed breath
as powerful as any ray cannon blast.
"Punch it, Karn! Full speed!" Gerrard called.
"This is full speed," came the rumbled response.
"Evasive action," Gerrard shouted.
"This is evasive action," Sisay responded.
"Laying in planeshift!" Hanna called.



16
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"Belay that," Gerrard responded. "Stay here on Rath.
Lay in a course to the closest active portal ship."
"Aye, Commander."
"One armada isn't enough for you to take on?" Sisay
asked through the tube.
"We'll shut down that one just like we've shut down
this one."
Weatherlight jagged, her keel smashing a dragon engine
that had flown up beneath it. The metallic wyrm plunged
from the air to tumble brokenly across the tortured ground.
"Nice flying, Captain!" Gerrard said.
"How about you shoot some of them?" she replied.
"Yeah, how about it?"
Gerrard's cannon blazed. Blood-red energy dragged
plasma from the air. It roared down the open gullet of a
dragon that swooped up to port. The eyes of the beast