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

wheels sat Metathran shock troopsтАФblue-skinned warriors
bioengineered for this very war. They were held against the
walls by simple centripetal force. The transports had no
engines of their own. On the perimeter of each disk, five
powerstones in the five colors of magic were imbedded
equidistant. In dynamic opposition, they made the wheel
into a mana magnet. It was drawn inexorably to the most
powerful mana source nearby, where it would clamp tight.
Reaching the height of their arc, the transports sensed the
cruisers emerging above. One after another, they whirled
upward. Dragon engines flew down to intercept them. A
few disks struck the dragons, knocking them aside and
continuing on their steady flight upward. The pull of
gravity was nothing next to the pull of magic. Like sucker
fish around a shark, the disks schooled up around the
nearest Phyrexian cruiser and latched on. Immediately,
Metathran warriors climbed from their wheels, boarding
the enemy vessel.
"They will not survive the battle," Barrin noted. "They
are bred not to care whether they do," Urza said. "So are
Phyrexians," Barrin replied.
"Then they should be a fair match," Urza mused. His
eyes glinted. Whenever he stared intently, the faceted
gemstones in his skull showed through the masking
glamour they wore. "I only wish I had batteries of ray
cannons. That was my one great oversight." "One ... great


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J. Robert King

... oversight," Barrin echoed sardonically. Urza raised an
eyebrow. "Phyrexians inherited Thran power-stone
technology undiluted. They had six thousand years and a
world laboratory to improve on it. I've had to dig Thran
hulks from deserts and volcanoes and guess at glyphs and
work in impoverished isolation." He gave another rap of his
war staff. A hundred more troop transports launched
overhead. "Of course they have ray cannons."
"Weatherlight has Phyrexian ray cannons. You could
study them there. Your titan engines could use such
weapons."
"I would not interfere with the development of the
crew." "They wouldn't even know you were there," Barrin
interrupted testily. "You are Urza Planeswalker, after all."
The new batch of troop transports swarmed a third
cruiser, just then emerging from the portal. The first two
ships, sharks drifting side by side, no sooner cleared the gap
than black-mana bombards hurled destruction from one to
the other. Ropy lines of energy spattered the sides of one