" Perry Rhodan 0021 - (2c) Menace of Atomigeddon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

out: to Venus.
The Stardust left the convoy to its fate and resumed its trip again. Rhodan regretted the
destruction of the 34 ships. He regretted it the more because the collision of the Stardust with
the convoy of the Eastern Bloc had been due to an extraordinary accident. The probability that
two objects, moving more or less arbitrarily through space, would meet each other head on was
extremely remoteтАФfar less than the possibility of small stones hitting one another when thrown
into the air by two persons.
 2/ THE DAY THE (RED) EARTH STOOD STILL

Moscow, 12th of June, 10 a.m. local time.
The General Staff of the Combined Forces of the Eastern Bloc has resolved that the date for
the attack on the most important military and industrial installations of the other two power
blocs and the New Power had to be set at one of the next days.
The conditions had never been as favourable as now. The Eastern Bloc had established a base
on Venus. They had as yet failed to learn of TomisenkowтАЩs pitiful fate. A huge fleet with
bountiful supplies of reinforcement was on its way to Venus. Neither had they heard about the
catastrophe which had befallen that fleet. Moreover, the New Power didnтАЩt seem to have
become aware of the major political upheavals that had taken place or didnтАЩt care about these
shifts which had caused the new course of the Eastern Bloc. Although they had feared during
the first weeks an intervention by the government at Galacto City, it had never developed.
The reason was, presumably, that Perry Rhodan, the Chief of the New Power, was at this
time neither on Earth nor anywhere in the vicinity. Indeed, Moscow had not the slightest inkling
as to the whereabouts of Perry Rhodan.
The conference of the General Staff was held at the auditorium of a university. There was
general agreement about the main strategy and the fact that only the details of its military
execution had to be discussed, filled the Generals with the pleasant mood of anticipated victory.
A Bulgarian Marshall presented his thesis regarding the strategic encirclement of the Asiatic
Federation when a staff officer appeared with a note in his hand, walking though not in haste
but with a worried expression on his face. He approached Marshall Sirow who conducted the
conference from the centre of the first row.
Sirow took the message and glanced at it. His neighbours saw him frown. Then he stared at
the Bulgarian Marshall until the latter became disconcerted by his gaze. Sirow motioned him
with his hand and stepped up to the lectern from where the professors normally dispensed their
wisdom. Astonished, the Bulgarian willingly made room for him.
Sirow began without preliminaries. тАЬIтАЩll read you the reports which have arrived a few
minutes ago at the Central Command from various parts of the country.тАЭ
тАЬFirstly: a meteorological observation stationтАжтАЭ he made a significant pause in order to
indicate that he alluded to a far more important installation by this code name, тАЬтАжon the island
Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean was demolished by a tornado and swept away at 9:38 a.m.
Moscow time. The sole survivor found a radio that was still intact and sent the message. He
reported that seconds before the sudden and totally unexpected storm the landscape turned dark
as if the polar night had begun 4 months too early.тАЭ
тАЬSecondly: Novosibirsk, 8:51 a.m. Moscow time. The light of the sun seemed to be eclipsed
by a dark shadow. The rocket base outside the city came under the influence of a peculiar
phenomenon of weightlessness. Men floated away through the air and the launching ramps
became disconnected from their foundations and rockets were carried away by a suddenly
developing storm.тАЭ
 тАЬThirdly: Molotow, Ural, 9:44 a.m. Moscow time. An unidentified object darkened the sky
temporarily and raised a cyclone of enormous magnitude. It left a one-kilometer-wide trail of
scorched earth in its wake. All above ground mining and smelting installations of the ore