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

annihilation-a paving of the way for what would follow.
Those who still wish to blame Protoculture trace the genesis of this back to Zor, Aquarian-
age Prometheus, whose gift to the galaxy was a Pandora's box he willingly opened. Displaced and
repressed, the Flower of Life had rebelled. And there were no chains, molecular or otherwise,
capable of containing its power. That Zor, resurrected by the Elders of his race for their dark
purposes, should have been the one to free the Flower from its Matrix is now seen as part of
Protoculture's equation. Equally so, that that liberation should call forth the Invid to complete
the circle.

They came without warning: a swarm of monsters and mecha folded across space and time by
their leader/queen, the Regis, through an effort of pure psychic will. They did not choose to
announce themselves the way their former enemies had, nor did they delay their invasion to puzzle
out humankind's strengths and weaknesses, quirks and foibles. There was no need to determine
whether Earth did or did not have what they sought; their Sensor Nebulae had already alerted them
to the presence of the Flower. It had found compatible soil and climate on the blue and white
world. All that was required were the Pollinators, a missing element in the Robotech Masters'
equations.
In any case, the Invid had already had dealings with Earthlings, having battled them on a
dozen planets, including Tirol itself. But as resilient as the Humans might have been on Haydon
IV, Spheris, and the rest, they were a pathetic lot on their homeworld.
In less than a week the Invid conquered the planet, destroying the orbiting factory
satellite-an ironic end for the Zentraedi aboard-laying to waste city after city, and dismissing
with very little effort the vestiges of the Army of the Southern Cross. Depleted of the
Protoculture charges necessary to fuel their Robo-technological war machines, those warriors who
had fought so valiantly against the Masters were forced to fall back on a small supply of nuclear
weapons and conventional ordnance that was no match for the Invid's plasma and laser-array
superiority.
Even if Protoculture had been available to the Southern Cross for their Hovertanks and
Alpha Veritechs, there would have been gross problems to overcome: the two years since the mutual
annihilation of the Robotech Masters and Anatole Leonard's command had seen civilization's


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unchecked slide into lawlessness and barbarism. Cities became city-states and warred with one
another; men and women rose quickly to positions of power only to fall even more swiftly in the
face of greater military might. Greed and butchery ruled, and what little remained of the northern
hemisphere's dignity collapsed.
Though certain cities remained strong-Mannatan, for example (formerly New York City)-the
centers of power shifted southward, into Brazilas especially (the former Zentraedi Control Zone),
where growth had been sure and steady since the SDF-1's return to devastated Earth and the
founding of New Macross and its sister city, Monument.
Unlike the Zentraedi or the Tirol Masters, the Invid were not inclined to destroy the
planet or exterminate humankind. Quite the contrary: Not only had the Flower found favorable
conditions for growth, the Invid had as well. The Regis had learned enough in her campaign against
the Tirolians and the so-called Sentinels to recognize the continuing need for technology. Gone
was the blissful tranquillity of Optera, but the experiment had to be carried forth to its
conclusion nonetheless, and Earth was well suited for the purpose.
After disarming and occupying the planet, the Regis believed she was more than halfway