" Perry Rhodan 0011 - (5b) Mutants in Action" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

seconds. Both ships reached an altitude of thirty miles before dipping back into horizontal flight and
continuing toward the coast.

Skimming low over the sea was a line of giant aircraft. The Earthmen could not tell whether they were
Ferronian freight transports or Topidian troop transports, so they left them in peace. The reconnaissance
cameras ran on uninterruptedly, so that much of the information that the two pilots had to bypass in the
swiftness of their flight would be retrievable from the film records. The ocean raced away beneath them.
The coast of the central continent appeared, and with it the giant city of Thorta, where the Thort had lived
until the Topides drove him out.

The Red Palace alone constituted a small city, and Thorta was at least five times as large as any
terrestrial metropolis. Joined to its southern extremity was the giant space launch and landing field. Its
surface enclosed an area of some 3,600 square miles; however, the Topides had apparently decided to
land their fleet in a less obvious location. Only a few of the rod shaped ships were to be seenтАФplus the
giant ball of the stolen Arkonide spaceship.

The scanner screen came alive with moving traces. Deringhouse studied their pattern and direction of
flight for a moment and came to the conclusion that none of them were hostile. After all, it was to be
expected that there would be some kind of air traffic over a city such as Thorta.

"WeтАЩve picked up enough recon data on the city, I think," suggested Klein. "What now?"

"Down below to the spaceport. LetтАЩs fry a few of those flying sausages!"

Klein responded at once. In close paired formation the two fighters shot in from the sea toward the
southern edge of the city and the spaceport. DeringhouseтАЩs instruments locked onto the objectives, and
when he was at firing altitude he let loose with the disintegrator. One of the Topidian ships burst into a
swirling cloud of atomised particles, and sixty yards beyond it, a second ship met the same fate.

"Antiaircraft fire!" yelled Klein.

The ground to air missiles were dangerously close. Fired straight on from the eastern side of the field,
they could be dodged only by overloading their propulsion drives beyond all safety factors. But it became
apparent that the rocket bombardment was only a diversionary manoeuvre. While they were still
observing the blips of the receding rockets, a pale disintegrator beam shot out at them from a battle
station on board the giant battleship. The scanner screen left only a faint trace, and Deringhouse wasnтАЩt
even aware the shot had been fired until the moment he sensed that his ship was not responding to the
control.

"Your left wing!" yelled Klein.

"WhatтАЩs the matter?"

"ItтАЩs been sliced in half!"

The two fighters climbed higher. Klein strove to follow DeringhouseтАЩs reeling ship as best he could. The
unintentional manoeuvre meanwhile provided a priceless advantage, in that it was impossible for even the
automatic beam lock on device of a super disintegrator to follow the weaving movements of a wounded
space fighter. Deringhouse had to fly by wire. The loss of half a wing wasnтАЩt too disturbing to him. The
fighter was only partially an aerodynamic craft; to a great extent it could dispense with airfoil assistance.