"Jack McKinney - Robotech 10 - Invid Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

transport, glow, and burn out. He was trying to maintain proximity with the ship, but as a result
his own displays were suddenly flashing warnings as well. I'd better slow down myself if I don't
want to be decorating a big part of the landscape.
Scott pulled the mode selector to G position and stepped out of his fear temporarily to
think the Veritech through to Guardian mode. As the legs of the mecha dropped, reverse-
articulating, he engaged the foot thrusters, substantially cutting his speed. At the same time,
Gardner's transport was roaring past him in an uncontrolled plunge.
"Commander, pull out!" he cried into the net. Marlene!
Caught between self-sacrifice and desperation, Scott could do little more than bear
witness to the agonizingly slow deterioration of the command ship-the end of all he held dear in
the world. The transport was a glowing ember now, slagging off fragments of itself into the void.
The intense heat would have already boiled the blood of those inside...
Marlene!
His mind tried to save him from the horror by denying the events, cocooning him in much
the same way the Veritech did. But averting his gaze only worsened matters. Everywhere he looked
ships-of-the-fleet were breaking apart, flaming out as they plunged into Earth's betraying blue
softness, wings and stabilizers folded by heat, delicate necks snapped, molten alloy falling like
silver tears in the night.
The Veritechs were faring better, but columns of Invid were now on the ascent to deal out
their own form of injustice.
They fell upon the helpless transports and command ships first, helping nature's cruel
reversal along with deliberately placed rends and breaches, spreading further ruin throughout the
fleet. Scott saw acts of bravery and futility: a Battloid already crippled and falling backward
into the atmosphere pouring cannon fire against the enemy; two superheated Veritechs attempting to
defend a transport against dozens of Invid claw fighters; another VT, boosters blazing, in a
kamikaze run toward the head of the column.


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Scott instructed his ship to jettison the rear augmentation pack and increased his speed,
atmosphere be damned. There was still an outside chance that some of Gardner's crew had made it
into the evacuation pods. If only the Invid could be kept away from the hapless transport.
"Please, pull out!" Scott was screaming through gritted teeth. "Please, please..."
Then, all at once, the transport's triple-thrusters died out, and an instant later the
ship was engulfed in a soundless fireball that blew it to pieces.
Marlene! Scott railed at the heavens, his fists striking blows against the canopy and
console as the Veritech commenced a swift unguided fall.


CHAPTER TWO
I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I laid eyes on Scott Bernard-beneath all that
Robotech armor, I mean. He had the Look of the Lost in his eyes, and a stammer in his voice that
was pure tremolo. The latter proved to be a case of offworld accent-some Tirolian holdover-but
that Look...I just couldn't meet his eyes; I sat there tinkering with the Cyclone, trying to
figure out whether I should run for the hills or off the guy then and there. Later on-much later
on-he told me about that first night in the woods. I've got to laugh, even now: Ask Scott Bernard
the one about the tree falling in the wilderness-and prepare to have your head bitten off?
Rand, Notes on the Run