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

cruiser, eating it away.
Urza nodded. "I see the teams have reached the fire
controls,"
The attacking ship banked inward. Its huge hulk ran up
alongside the neighbor ship. Lateral spikes sank like fangs
into the wounded vessel's flank. Sparks ringed the gouges,
and oil bled forth.
"They've reached the ship's bridge too," Barrin added.
The cruiser ground a deep cleft in the side of its cohort,
severing vital conduits. The second cruiser began to list.
"You don't need ray cannons when you have strategy,"
Urza thought aloud.
The sky leviathans seemed to fuse. They scissored
together, shearing away metal as they went. One lost lift.



29
 Invasion

Spewing flames, the two massive machines pitched toward
the plains.
"And now, they've shut down the batteries," Urza said
as commentary. "They should be returning to their
transports. Once the mana batteries are dead, the
transports will rise." His gemstone eyes followed the
battleships as they plunged. Not a single transport had
disengaged from the hull. "Any moment now, and they will
whirl away to attach to the next ship."
The ships formed a huge V as they struck ground. Their
prows dug deep. Soil mounded ahead of them and splashed
outward like water. The ships compacted. What air once
resided in those oily chambers shot forth in angry hisses.
Panels blasted loose. Explosions followed. They began in
shattered power cores and spread on plumes of oil and
ignited even the white heads of wheat. Then the raving
flames were extinguished by a black implosion that sucked
air into its empty belly.
Grass was pulled from its roots. Trees were leveled in
converging rings. Barrin himself would have been sucked
into the vortex had it not been for Urza's stony hand
grasping his shoulder. The whole world seemed to gasp in
that moment. It was a deafening drone. Slowly the roar
died to a sound like horses screaming, then sudden silence.
Releasing his comrade, Urza said hoarsely, "Not as I had
planned it."
"Nothing will be as you had planned it," rasped Barrin.
To soften the comment, he said, "Thank you for anchoring
me."
"I was only returning the favor." Urza hitched his