"Keith Laumer - Bolos 9 - Bolo Strike" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

and a planetary magnetic field measuring about 1.2 gauss protected the
surface from the vast bands of radiation flung off by giant Dis; the night
skies were ablaze with auroras.
Caern, Streicher thought, must be a world of wild and spectacular
beauty.
It was also a world that would be filled with unexpected dangers,
even deadliness, all quite apart from any surprises the Trixies might have
arranged for unwanted visitors.
Moberly was still talking behind the image of the slowly turning
moon, describing the history of contact with Caern since the first traders
had arrived five years earlier.
"Requests that Confederation officials be allowed to inspect the living
conditions for Caern's human population were ignored or rebuffed," he
said. "Those Caernan humans we were able to interview showed signs of
having been brainwashed or otherwise conditioned emotionally into
believing the Aetryx are actually gods of some sort. Demands that full
civil rights be extended to Caern's humans were ignored. So were
demands that our merchants have direct access to the human
population.
"Tensions escalated when the Aetryxha Circle, as their government
styles itself, rejected the Persean Doctrine. You've all received downloads
on the legalese. Essentially, the Doctrine guarantees the rights of
humans throughout the Confederation's sphere of influence, and
establishes the Navy as the guarantor of those rights."
Images shifted and drifted across Streicher's vision, replacing the
holographic globe of Caern. Confederation naval vessels, huge,
irregularly patterned in swaths and stripes of black, gray, and light blue,
moved into Disian space, the ringed, back-lit globe of the gas giant
looming vast within its necklace of crescent moons.
"Since Caern is well within the treaty boundaries of Confederation
influence, the Confederation Senate authorized military intervention. Two
months ago, the battlecarriers Esan and Helias, the command cruiser
Galahedron, and three destroyers arrived at Caern as part of a show of
force to win Aetryxha acknowledgment of the Doctrine's provisions.
You've all been briefed. You all know what happened. . . ."
Silent pulses of light illuminated the squadron of warships drifting
across Streicher's inner vision. Through computer simulation, the virtual
watchers observed again the ambush of BTF-74, the eye-searing
disintegration of the Helias and the Esan, the two destroyers and the
Galahedron.
"Kurbal recorded four battlecarriers moving out of Caern orbit as she
swung past Dis," Moberly said, as the enemy vessels were highlighted in
the scene by flashing red reticule boxes. "We don't know whether those
ships are stationed permanently in the Caern System, or at some other
Aetryxha base at another star. Third Fleet has engaged enemy forces at a
known Trixie base at Draelano, ten parsecs from here, in an operation
designed to draw local forces off . . . and it appears to have been
completely successful. Our lead fleet elements have now reached Caern
and begun the preliminary bombardment. They report that the carriers
aren't here now, which means we will be able to achieve and maintain