"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

allowed herself to forget how sophisticated the Vratix could be and just see
them as insects, then she was watching a whole swarm of Corellian gluttonbugs
clear-chew a forest. They moved in a mass, leaping away as bolts rained down on
them, exploding and pitching body parts in every direction.
The most surreal element in the whole scene was the lack of wailing from the
victims. The Vratix vocalized no sounds as they fled. They grasped each 'other
and remained close, clearly taking security in the sense they trusted the most.
But that's what's getting them killed. Massed together like this makes them
terribly vulnerable to the strafing runs.
"Elscol, we have to do something."
"What? These blasters aren't going to bring down a starfighter, even if they
don't have shields." Elscol coughed as the breeze wafted smoke toward them. "The
only thing we can do is try to get out of here."
"Agreed." Iella looked out again, bracing to duck away from more aerial fire,
but as the echoes of the last TIE's shriek died, no new one rose to take its
place. Instead the whine of blaster fire started at the north end of the
village. She looked in that direction and saw figures in white moving into the
burning village. "Stormies."
Elscol laughed and checked the power pack on her pistol. "Not hardly. Look at
the armor and how they wear it. Most of them are too small for it. They're Home
Defense troops all dressed up for this operation."
"How can you be sure?"
"You think real stormies would raid a jungle village wearing white?"
Iella hesitated. "But on Endor, in the forest there, reports I heard . . ."
"Trust me, Iella, they learned from that mistake. Getting drubbed by a Wookiee
and a bunch of Ewoks convinced them to institute some reforms." Elscol pulled
herself into the door-hole and leaped out. "C'mon."
Iella followed, making the three-meter drop without in-jury. Running forward,
she caught up with Elscol at the wall that edged the rooftop where they stood.
As Elscol swung her legs over the top of the wall, Iella raised her blaster
pistol and sighted in on one of the advancing troopers.
Elscol gently slapped her thigh. "Save it, you'll never hit from here. Too far."
Iella glanced down and grimly closed one eye. "Too far for you, maybe." Her head
came up and she sighted in on a group of three troopers. She centered the gun on
the middle one, fired, then snapped a shot off at the other two. The first shot
hit the target square on the left breast, then glanced up off the armor and
burned through his throat. The second shot pierced the left eyepiece on the
second trooper, spinning him around like a top before he went down. The last
shot missed
its intended target, passing over the trooper's head by a cou-ple of
centimeters, but only did so because the first trooper's body had knocked him
off balance and he was falling.
Elscol looked up with wide-eyed amazement at her. "A head shot at this range?"
Iella shrugged, then tapped the rear sight. "Shoots high." She sat on the edge
of the wall, then leaped down to the next level and remained crouched at the
foot of the wall. Elscol landed beside her. A few red blaster bolts bloodied the
smoke in their direction, but none came even close to getting them. "They don't
know where we are or where those shots came from."
"And because they aren't Vratix, they'll have a hard time jumping up here to
find us." Elscol smiled and crept forward toward the edge of the terrace wall.