"Michael P. Kube - McDowell - Black Fleet 2 - Shield of Lies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kube-McDowell Michael P)

"That's about what I figured," said Lando. "Lobot, dig out the cutting
blaster. We're going to have to make our own door."
With a grim expression on his face, Admiral Hiram Drayson sat on the
edge of his desk and studied the final contact report from Colonel
Pakkpekatt at Gmir As-kilon.

The recordings from the spotter ships were dramatic and alarming.

Moments before the vagabond broke away, a ring of six rounded
bumps--accumulator nodes or beam radiators, Drayson thought--appeared
at the forward end of the ship. A fierce blue light began to dance
over the bow.

Moments later, twin beams of energy shot out from two of the nodes and
scissored back through the gap between the vagabond and Lady Luck,
slicing them apart. Another pair of beams knifed out from two other
nodes and carved through the interdiction generator on the underbelly
of the picket Kauri. The blowback surge from the fully charged
generator destroyed Kauri's power compartment and left the ship afire
and dead in space.

The instant Kauri was neutralized, the vagabond began to move, turning
away from Lady Luck and accelerating out past the disabled picket's
position, well clear of the remaining interdictors. Just forty-two
seconds after it began, it was over, the vagabond vanishing into the
center of a hyperspace cone.

The final tally for the contact: One drone ferret destroyed.

One interdiction picket disabled and abandoned, with twenty-six
casualties, including six fatalities in the power compartment.

One yacht recovered and returned to a mooring on Glorious's hull,
undamaged except for the primary air-lock.

One successful boarding of the target.

One successful escape by the target.

One expedition armada scattered across space, with four ships in
pursuit of the target and the others pulling ambulance or cleanup
duty.

And, most troubling of all to Drayson, one contact suit gauntlet
recovered in the debris--right hand, in Lando's size.

The report contained some positive information as well. It was beyond
dispute now that the vagabond's weapons were compound--the intersection
of two or more beams did the damage, probably through some sort of
harmonic resonance. Unless there were more weapon nodes concealed