"Jack McKinney - Robotech 03 - Homecoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

surprise and smashing their formation after cutting a swath through Vermilion
Team.
Whatever it was, it was unlike any Zentraedi weapon the humans had seen so
far. Unlike the pods, which resembled towering metal ostriches bristling with
guns, the newcomer was more human-shaped-a bigger, more hulking, and heavily
armed and armored version of the Veritechs' own Battloid mode. And fast-
frightfully fast and impossible to stop, eluding even the SDF-1's massive
defensive barrages.
Roy had expected to see the battle fortress under intense attack; instead,
the super dimensional fortress was cruising along unbothered and alone.
Moreover, transmissions over the tac net indicated that the Zentraedi pods and
Cyclopses were withdrawing. Roy couldn't figure that out.
He switched from the tac net to SDF-1's command net. There was word of the
new Zentraedi mecha. The thing had made it as far as SDF-1-getting in beneath
the fields of fire of most of the ship's batteries-then had suddenly withdrawn
at blinding speed, outmaneuvering gunfire and outracing pursuit. The ship had
suffered only minor damage, and the operations and intelligence people had
concluded that the whole thing had been a probing attack of some kind, a test of
a new machine and new tactics.
Roy didn't care as long as the battle fortress was still safe. He gathered
the Veritechs, ready to head home.
"Enemy pod," Skull Five called over the tac net. "Bearing one-niner-four-
seven."
Roy already had the computer reference on one of his situation screens. A
pod, all right, but evidently damaged and drifting, none of its weapons firing;
it was leaking atmosphere.
"Could be a trick," Skull Seven said. "What d' ya think, skipper? Do we
blast it out of the sky?"
 "Negative; somebody may still be alive in there, and a live captive is
what the intelligence staff's been praying for." The incredible savagery of this
deep-space war was such that few survived as casualties. Alien or human, a
fighter almost always either triumphed or died, a simple formula. The humans had
never recovered a living enemy.
Besides, for very personal reasons, Roy was especially eager to see a
Zentraedi undergo interrogation.
"We're getting signals from it, nothing we can unscramble," a
communications officer reported over the command net.
Whatever was going on, none of the Zentraedi forces seemed to be turning
back for a rescue. Veritech fly-bys drew no fire; eyeball inspection and
instruments indicated that the damaged pod's main power source had been knocked
out but that some of its weapons were still functioning. Nevertheless, it passed
up several opportunities to blast away at nearby VTs.
"This is too good an opportunity to pass up," Gloval finally announced
over the main command net. "If there is a survivor aboard, we must get him into
the SDF-1 immediately."
"That thing could be booby-trapped-or its occupant could be!" a security
staff officer protested from one of Roy's display screens.
Gloval replied, "That is why we will push the pod closer to SDF-1-but not
too close-and connect a boarding tube to it. An EVA team will make a thorough
examination before we permit it any closer."