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

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 J. Robert King

From amidships, Dabis and Fewsteem reported in from
their gun encasements.
"Squee, too," came a squeal through the speaking tube.
"Squee, too."
The belly gunner and top gunners reported in.
Gerrard shouted to them all. "They look awful, sure, but
they've never been in battle. They've never tested their
ships in combat. Shoot for the power conduits. Shoot for
intakes and stabilizers, anything that'll make one shot
count for two."
Weatherlight mounted up the sky. Her engines
screamed in the ascent. The cruisers didn't seem to get any
nearer, only bigger.
"They've got to have fifty guns per ship," Dabis gasped.
"How do we stand against fifty guns?"
"We'll stand, and they'll fall," Gerrard said. "Sisay, take
us between the ships."
Her voice was shrill in the tube. "Between them?"
"You heard me. Thread the needle."
"You mean run the gauntlet," Sisay growled.
"Threading the needle, Commander."
After the stress of shifting, this kind of tooth-and-nail
ascent was like poetry. Never before had Weatherlight been
so powerful. Skyshaper, Juju Bubble, Bones of Ramos,
Power MatrixтАФthe engine had almost doubled in size since
leaving Dominaria for Rath. It showed. Weatherlight rose
with a vengeance.
Ahead the two Phyrexian cruisers formed the cliff walls
of an aerial canyon.
Weatherlight was still accelerating as she drove between
them.
"Fire at will!" Gerrard roared.
He squeezed the cannon handles. A great bolt of
radiance roared out of the flaming end. It struck clear air,


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 Invasion

melting it to red plasma. A hissing comet, the flare arced
across the racing sky. It smashed fistlike into the starboard
intakes of one cruiser. Sparks and great shreds of metal
danced in the engine. A black plume belched out the rear
of the ship. Tahngarth scored a similar strike on the cruiser
on his side. Dabis and Fewsteem squeezed off a few shots.
Then black bolts answered. They shot out like sooty
spider webs from ports along the ships' baselines. These