"Gabriel Mesta - StarCraft 02 - Shadow of the Xel'Naga" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mesta Gabriel)

older than his sister, when he wore that cocky grin on his face he looked like a reckless teenager. тАЬI think
we can outrun the worst of it.тАЭ

тАЬYou always overestimate what we can do, Lars.тАЭ Even at the age of seventeen, Octavia was known for
her stability and common sense. тАЬAnd I always end up saving your butt.тАЭ

Lars seemed to have a bottomless reservoir of energy and enthusiasm. She gripped her seat as the big
all-purpose vehicle crunched through a trench and continued along a wide beaten path between plantings,
heading toward the distant lights of the town.

Shortly after their parents' death, it had been Lars's crazy suggestion that the two of them expand their
cultivated land and add remote automated mineral mines to their holdings. She had tried, unsuccessfully,
to talk him out of it. тАЬLet's be practical, Lars. We've already got our hands full with the farm as it is.
Expanding would leave us time for nothing but workтАФnot even families.тАЭ

Half of the colonists' eligible daughters had already filed requests to marry himтАФCyn McCarthy had
filed three separate times!тАФbut so far Lars had made plenty of excuses. Colonists were considered
adults at the age of fifteen on this rough world, and many were married and had children before they
reached their eighteenth birthday. Next year, Octavia would be facing the same decision, and choices
were few in Free Haven.

тАЬAre you sure we want to do this?тАЭ she had asked one last time.

тАЬOf course. It's worth the extra effort. And once we're established there'll be plenty of time for each of
us to get married,тАЭ Lars had insisted, shaking back his shoulder-length sandy hair. She had never been
able to argue with that grin. тАЬBefore we know it, Octavia, it'll all turn around, and then you'll thank me.тАЭ

He had been certain they could grow crops high on the slopes of the Back Forty, the ridge that
separated their lands from another broad basin and more mountains twelve kilometers away. So the
brother and sister had used their robo-harvester to scrape flat a new swath of barely arable farmland and
plant new crops. They also set up automated mineral mining stations on the rocky slopes of the foothills.
That had been almost two years ago.

Now a gust of wind slammed into the broad metal side of the harvester, rattling the sealed windowports.
Lars compensated on the steering column and accelerated. He didn't even look tired from their long day
of hard work.

Laser-lightning seared across the sky, leaving colorful tracks across her retinas. Though he couldn't see
any better than his sister, Lars didn't slow down at all. They both just wanted to get home.
 тАЬWatch out for the boulders!тАЭ Octavia said, her piercing green eyes spotting the hazard as rain slashed
across the windows of the impressive tractorlike vehicle.

Lars discounted the rocks, drove over them, and crushed the stone with the vehicle's treads. тАЬAww,
don't underestimate the capabilities of the machine.тАЭ

She snorted indelicately. тАЬBut if you throw a plate or fry a hydraulic cam,I'mthe one who has to fix it.тАЭ

The multipurpose robo-harvester, the most important piece of equipment any of the colonists owned,
was capable of bulldozing, tilling, destroying boulders, planting, and harvesting crops. Some of the big
machines had rock-crusher attachments, others had flamethrowers. The vehicles were also practical for