"02 - Battle Cry" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

"Luck" was a term the Zentraedi were unfamiliar with; their language contained no words for it, and their psychological makeup embraced no such concept.
Khyron had suffered a setback. It had nothing to do with chance or odds. He had failed because he had listened to Breetai and disregarded his own instincts. This would not happen again. This enemy was unpredictable. Where it would be advantageous to press an attack, they would retreat; where it would have been wise to use the massive firepower of Zor's ship, they instead relied on small fighters. And the worst of it was that they seemed to value life above all else. Sooner or later Khyron would have to play on that fear of death they carried around.
He had appointed a new second-in-command to replace Gerao, who was now in solitary confinement for having failed to detect the Micronians' countermeasures at the abandoned base. The blank faceplated visage of this second was currently on the monitor screen in Kyron's quarters.
"But, my lord," the second was saying, "what about Commander Breetai's reaction to our continued attacks? He has made it clear-"
"Forget about him! Do you dare question my authority?"
"My lord!" The second saluted.
"We'll deal with that ship in our own way. Now pay close attention: Breetai has prescribed war games for us. This is his way of humiliating me for our failures. But we're going to turn this opportunity to our advantage. We're going to take that ship, if it takes every last piece of mecha in the Zentraedi armada!"

Things were quiet on the bridge of the SDF-1, a little too quiet to suit Claudia Grant. The ship had been in a deep-space orbit around Mars for scarcely a week, but that week felt like an eternity. And it had been that long since Lisa had exchanged more than three words with Claudia or any of the others on the bridge. Something had happened to Lisa down there, but even Claudia couldn't pry any of the details from her. To be sure, it had something to do with Karl Riber. Claudia figured that he must have been quite a man to keep Lisa in limbo for eight years. For most of the ship's crew and the population of Macross City the red planet afforded some sense of stability and center, but for Lisa it was a constant reminder of loss, an orbit of pain.
The enemy had been hammering away at them for the past week, determined to keep them from making any progress toward Earth. But the launch window for a return to Earth was still two weeks away, so they would have remained here regardless. Conserving fuel, making repairs, and using Mars's gravity to throw them toward Earth when the right moment came. Nevertheless, they had attempted to keep the planet between themselves and the enemy; until yesterday, when long-range recon units had reported that a sizable contingent of enemy ships had dropped to an inner orbit near the Martian moon Phobos. The enemy was sandwiching the fortress between their forces. Claudia was worried, and Lisa's continued silence and sulking were not helping at all.
Claudia held something in her hand she thought might break her friend's distracted mood: It was a dispatch from Maistroff's office listing the new field promotions. Rick Hunter's name was on the list. Claudia tapped the dispatch against the palm of her left hand. Maybe anger was just what the doctor ordered.
She sidled over to Lisa, suppressing a grin as she handed over the dispatch.
Lisa accepted it disinterestedly and scanned the short column. Claudia watched her expression change as the name registered. Lisa crumpled up the paper and slammed both her palms down on the radar indicator board.
"I can't believe it! I just...I can't believe this! It's unbelievable!"
"What is it, Lisa?" Claudia was still playing dumb, and not very effectively.
"Don't be coy with me, Claudia. You've seen this list. How does Hunter rate a promotion to group leader?"
Claudia stroked her chin. "Uh, let's see, I think he was involved in some sort of rescue operation-"
"That's a matter of opinion, Claudia. Oh oh..."
Lisa was staring at the radar screen and fiddling with the control knobs. Claudia went over to her.
"What's up?"
She was working the dials, trying to tune something in. "I guess I shouldn't have slapped this thing so hard-it's all static."
"Try switching over to the backup overrides," Claudia suggested.
She did, but the static remained.
"I'm going to run this through computer analysis," said Lisa.
The two women waited for the system to display its diagnosis. They sucked in their breath when it appeared: It was a jamming pattern.
"Put us on yellow alert," Lisa said with newfound enthusiasm. "Notify all VT teams to report to their fighters and stand by."

Things at Minmei's party had gone from bad to worse, and for Rick, the yellow alert siren blaring in the streets of Macross City felt like a reprieve.
By the time he and his new cohorts had arrived at the party, the restaurant was already packed. In addition to scores of Veritech defenders and a few of Minmei's show business friends, the mayor and his cronies were circulating around, pressing the flesh. At times it seemed to Rick that Mayor Luan harbored some secret plan for Minmei, as if she was some pet project or secret weapon he was going to unleash on the world. Minmei, dressed to kill in her purple mandarin tunic was at her butterfly best flitting from table to table, center stage no matter where she was in the room. She was hard on Rick for arriving late. Moreover, he had forgotten to pick up a present. She was duly impressed with the new lieutenant's bars but an instant later had taken an immediate shine to shy Max and was at that very moment singing harmony with him to guitar accompaniment. And the mayor hadn't helped matters any when he came over to Rick and in a conspiratorial whisper warned him about letting Minmei get too far out of sight-"She seems quite taken with your new corporal, Rick"-as if Rick could influence what she did and where she went.
Rick had quickly become withdrawn and moody, non-communicative even when Minmei's orbit took her past his table or her wink from across the room was meant to single him out as some sort of accomplice in her performance. Rick stayed close to the mildly intoxicating punch and kept his eyes down for most of the afternoon.
But then the alert had been sounded.
And now all the flyboys were gulping down their drinks and racing for the door, leaving Minmei standing alone, her song left unfinished, center stage stolen from her by the war. And even though Rick couldn't approve of her petulance and spoiled behavior, he couldn't help being moved by her innocence and naivetщ. He wanted to run to her and promise her that this war would go away soon and that all her dreams would come true. But the best he could promise was his return later with the gift he had for her. He gave her his kerchief to wipe the tears from her face, and she put her arms around his neck and thanked him with a hug.
"What would I do without you, Rick?"
He pulled away from her embrace; Max and Ben were calling to him from the hexagonal doorway, motioning for him to get himself in gear-after all, there was a battle to be fought, a war to be waged!
"Come on, Lieutenant, we don't want to keep the enemy waiting, do we?"
Rick looked at Ben and felt a sudden urge to strangle him. No, he thought, we mustn't keep them waiting.


CHAPTER EIGHT
One must now address the reasons for Khyron's failures. Was he defeated on each occasion by the Earth forces, or was he in fact defeated by his own commanders? So often recalled from the very brink of success; so often within reach of victory. Why wasn't he allowed full rein? Again, there is wide disagreement among the commentators we have been discussing throughout. Gordon (along with several of his psychohistorian disciples) wants to convince us that Dolza and Breetai had so misread Gloval's tactics as to believe that he would have destroyed the ship rather than allow it to fall into Zentraedi hands. And yet, Exedore himself has stated that: "...rivalry had completely splintered the Zentraedi high command. Continued contact with Human self-initiative had by this time fostered unrecognized and certainly incomprehensible competitive drives in the commanders themselves. Dolza, Breetai, and even Azonia (who had reasons of her own to behave otherwise) were unconsciously mimicking an emotion they had never experienced. `For the greater glory of the Zentraedi' had already become an archaic phrase."
Rawlins, Zentraedi Triumvirate: Dolza, Breetai, Khyron

Rick, Ben, and Max-the newly formed Black Team-were ordered to defensive positions in the Fourth Quadrant, close to the fortress and too far from the main fighting to suit Dixon. He was anxious to get into the thick of it.
Below them, between the SDF-1 and Mars, Skull, Red, and the other squadrons were engaging enemy pods. From his vantage point, Rick could make out a cat's cradle of interlacing laser light punctuated by brief spherical flashes of death, but most of the battle information came to him via the aircom net. It was beginning to sound like the boys had the enemy on the run; indeed, the explosive bursts seemed to indicate that the pods had fallen back to positions closer to the planetary rim.
As the exchanges continued to diminish in size and frequency, Rick began to worry that Gloval was permitting the VTs to fly right into a trap, or worse, that he had ordered offensive action against one of the mother ships. Dixon was ready to join them nevertheless.
"Can't we get into some of that?" he wanted to know.
"We have our orders," Rick told him sharply. "Now, stick close to me and stay alert."
On the bridge of the SDF-1, Gloval was studying the deployment of pods and Veritechs on the threat board. The enemy was trying something new. Instead of assaulting the fortress, as was their usual routine, they were keeping their distance, perhaps fearful that the main gun had been repaired. Would that that were the case, thought Gloval. But the more he studied the screen, the more suspicious he grew. The enemy wasn't turning tail to avoid battle. Gloval shook his head in amusement. Did they really think him such a fool? It was obvious that they were hoping to lure the VTs away from the fortress in order to open up a second front.
He was ready to issue a recall order when new data verified his hunch.
Vanessa announced, "We have an attack force of enemy pods at our stern."